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By HORATIO W. DRESSER 




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Human Efficiency. 





Human Efficiency 

A Psychological Study 
of Modern Problems 



By 

Horatio W. Dresser, Ph.D. 

Author of " The Power of Silence," " The Perfect Whole," 
<< Living by the Spirit," etc. 



G. P. Putnam's Sons 

New York and London 

Gbe "Knickerbocker press 
1912 



£ 



^> 



>*&* 



Copyright, 1912 

BY 

HORATIO WILLIS DRESSER 



ttbc ftnicfterbocker pce*«, Hew Borfe 

©CI.A305521 
NO. I 



PREFACE 

THIS study of human nature has been written 
with the conviction that every man desires 
fulness of life, hence is willing to undertake any 
investigation which promises to put him in surer 
command of his resources. It endeavours to dis- 
close various lines of development in such a way 
as to arouse enthusiasm for one of the most fas- 
cinating subjects that ever engage human atten- 
tion — the study of the human mind. In so doing 
no attempt is made to persuade the reader that 
there is one, and only one road to success, one 
theory or principle of interpretation. The purpose 
of the book is rather to aid each reader to inves- 
tigate for himself, and advance from the point 
already attained. Hence while the book is offered 
as a contribution to the science of human nature, 
it is first of all practical. 

At the beginning, and more or less throughout 
the volume, the discussion is connected with a 
recent movement of great promise. Hence while 
the purpose of the succeeding chapters is not to 
discuss industrial efficiency, the first chapter refers 
to the new science of business, the promises it 



iv Preface 

affords, the problems to which it gives rise. With 
the distinction between industrial and other types 
of efficiency the discussion enlarges to the scope 
of essentially human interests, in contrast with 
those of a class, or the demands of the mere " time- 
planner. " From this point on through several 
chapters the book might be called a treatise on 
applied psychology, with special reference to 
mental co-ordination, economy in the use of 
nervous force, efficiency of will, and other attain- 
ments that make for practical success. The 
concluding chapters are devoted to applied ethics, 
always with a view to individual efficiency. 

The point of view does not call for the usual 
sharp distinctions between practical life and the 
sciences. Indeed, the book was written in part 
to pass beyond these distinctions and make clear 
the relationship of psychology and ethics to life. 
It thus takes exception to treatises which while 
admirable pieces of science bear no relation for 
the plain man to his daily interests. The writings 
of Professor Wm. James are deemed an exception, 
hence in these pages abundant use is made of the 
psychological teachings of our greatest author in 
this field. 

It is plain that the movement in behalf of effi- 
ciency, now attracting widespread attention, af- 
fords points of connection between science and life 
not hitherto noted. For it begins in a neutral field, 



Preface v 

not far from, the arena in which the issues between 
capital and labour are just now being fought out, 
adjoining the territory which socialism claims but 
not identified with it, contiguous to the entrancing 
region which we call " success, " and related to the 
domains of education and moral reform. A man 
can be persuaded to be more efficient who cannot 
be persuaded of anything else. For, to repeat, 
what we want is life in its fulness, something which 
shall touch the whole man, enabling us to employ 
our capacities to the full. Once interested in 
putting all our powers into one thing in such a way 
as to bring satisfaction, possibilities without limit 
will be opened before us. While, then, increased 
efficiency at first glance appears to mean an 
attempt to get the utmost from our organism each 
working day, it soon proves to involve higher 
considerations. To say this is not to ignore the 
fact that economic demands are imperative. Nor 
is it to accept the present social order as the best. 
But the man who endeavours to become more 
efficient in a comprehensive sense of the word 
will find himself tracing human miseries and dis- 
abilities further back, until compelled to face the 
elements in his own life that must be changed. 
He will turn, for example, to his own impulsiveness 
as a cause of trouble, to his fault-finding or rebelli- 
ous spirit, his unreasoning attitude, the inner 
conflict between old forces and new ideals. Such 



vi Preface 

interests will naturally lead to a study of the 
springs of human action, the sources of power, the 
mental attainments which enable a man to employ 
his energies effectively. Hence the present volume 
is not alone devoted to either physical or mental 
efficiency, but traces mental co-ordination and 
the control of the brain to their foundations, 
carrying the two interests side by side. 

The general point of view is that in addition to 
the talents which enable a man to become a good 
artisan, manager, teacher, manual or brain-worker, 
there are activities which prompt us to achieve 
the type, transmute disposition into character, 
and to work for ideals. This leads to a plea in 
behalf of the many incentives that stir the human 
breast, the varied sorts of work men engage in, 
and the diverse modes of pursuing ideal ends. 
Hence the contention that we should live and let 
live receives new force. Psychologically, this is 
supported by a new study of the will, tending to 
restore the will to its proper place in contrast with 
recent interest in suggestion and the subconscious. 
Ethically speaking, this emphasis on the con- 
scious individual leads to the ideal of self-realisa- 
tion. At this point the doctrine of the book is 
closely allied with the teachings of the ethical 
idealists. My hope is that this book will show 
those who are persuaded of this ethical ideal how 
and where to begin to realise the self. 



Preface vii 

This book does not call for previous acquain- 
tance with works on psychology and ethics. The 
foot-notes indicate some of the most important 
references for further study. By the aid of these 
one may make this volume a text-book in either 
psychology or ethics. But the first suggestion 
is that each reader begin with the study of life, 
then seek the principles needed to explain life. 
For the forces that make for efficiency must be 
found by actual use. He who does not carry on a 
study of life while he reads will miss the methods 
which in the hands of humanists like Professor 
James have led to such fruitful results. The same 
is true of any one who, taking up this book by 
chance, may hope to discover the formula for 
success. I have avoided the use of italics, capital- 
ised words, and sub-heads, because the general 
discussion along the way is as important as any 
brief statement could be; and because there is no 
formula or secret of success that can be stated in a 
sentence. Attention and work are the secrets, so 
far as one can indicate them in advance. But 
attention calls for the study of details, and work 
requires careful application. Hence the first con- 
sideration is an analytical reflectiveness which 
begins at the beginning and leads on and on. 
Efficiency indeed is not so much a question of 
time and compactness as of thought, together with 
the right use of the resources at hand. 



viii Preface 

Some readers will hold that no study of human 
efficiency can be complete without an analysis 
of religious efficiency. This subject has been 
omitted for the most part for various reasons. 
The last five chapters are incidentally a discus- 
sion of the limitations of human powers, hence 
imply a theory of man's religious nature. Strictly 
speaking, the question of moral efficiency, con- 
sidered in the last chapter, underlies and includes 
the religious problem. The present study is 
prevailingly psychological, and it is impossible 
to consider religious matters in a satisfactory 
manner without passing beyond even the implied 
philosophy of efficiency which at many points in 
the investigation grows out of and leads beyond 
the psychological inquiry. Finally, I have omitted 
the question of religious efficiency because in 
another volume, The Philosophy of the Spirit, I 
have analysed man's spiritual nature at length. 
The purpose of the present discussion is to direct 
attention to practical results. He who through a 
study of psychological principles makes himself 
more efficient in the field in which he happens to 
be engaged, should be able to turn to the religious 
field and labour more effectively. What is now 
needed in the religious world is practical service 
in matters close at hand. Of theories of efficiency 
in a doctrinal sense we already have enough. 

The technical student of psychology will object 



Preface 



IX 



that this is not a scientific treatise, and will plead 
for a structural analysis of mental life in which 
nothing is said about practical values. But we 
already have books in abundance of that type. 
When the last word has been said about the hu- 
man mind as a collection of elements and processes, 
there still remains the real mental life of which 
each of us is aware, the desires that stir us, the 
emotions that quicken, the thoughts that uplift, 
and the will that accomplishes. In this book I 
have tried to describe the mind in such a way that 
every reader, whatever his type or vocation, shall 
be able to identify it, thereby learning more about 
his own life, finding new clues to success, new 
incentives to action. Hence it is my hope that 
many will make immediate use of the principles 
here under discussion, if not in their own inner 
conduct, at least in educational work for the 
benefit of workers young and old who are unable 
as yet to study or grasp these matters for them- 
selves. I have for the most part passed by the 
question of the economic advantages which will 
presumably follow, since these are more obvious, 
and because in recent works on industrial efficiency, 
and in the popular magazines, the financial values 
have been steadily emphasised. 

H. W. D. 

Cambridge, Mass., 
July, 191 1. 



CONTENTS 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV, 
V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 

X.— 

XI. 
XII, 
XIII, 
XIV— 



•Efficiency as an Ideal . 

•The Basis of Efficiency 

The Psychological Point of View 

Mental Co-ordination . 

The Subconscious . 



— Our Energies and their Control 128 



The Nature of Human Work 
The Efficient Will 

Success 

Insight .'..... 
A Law unto Oneself 



The Nature and Scope of Reason 298 



The Law of Love 
Moral Efficiency 
Index 



PAGE 
I 

27 

46 

71 

95 



160 
185 
213 
244 

273 



324 
353 
385 



XI 



HUMAN EFFICIENCY 



CHAPTER I 

EFFICIENCY AS AN IDEAL 

EFFICIENCY is becoming the great word in 
modern life. We are passing out of the 
period of careless and wasteful use of resources, 
in this great land of promise, and entering a 
period of conservation and scientific management. 
We are dividing and subdividing human labour 
that we may place each man where he can work 
best. Specialisation is being carried to a point 
never before dreamed of even by devotees of 
Utopian schemes. The age of organisation has 
come as the logical result of an age in which the 
central idea was evolution, for we had to learn 
nature's law of production before we could begin 
economically to use nature's resources. Having 
enjoyed many of the benefits of a rich period of 
development in the world of scientific invention 
and discovery, we are now proceeding to use our 



2 Human Efficiency 

resources so as to take full advantage of the new 
machinery thus put within our power. The ensuing 
age is very far from being purely mechanical, 
but is more truly the age of a new form of idealism. 
Efficiency is not the standard for engineers merely, 
for the man of affairs, or the expert in govern- 
mental matters ; it can be extended throughout the 
lines of human endeavour. It is well to consider 
some of the achievements already in process, that 
we may realise the scope of efficiency as an ideal. 
At first thought, efficiency appears to be the 
effort to get out of a machine or person as many 
foot-pounds of energy as possible in the shortest 
time. For example, it was formerly customary to 
use a locomotive at less frequent intervals, spend 
a considerable amount of money in repairs, and 
keep the locomotive in use for many years. Nowa- 
days, on the great railroads, an engine is used very 
steadily on longer hauls, is not left idle in the 
roundhouse until the same engineer takes it forth 
again ; but is kept in service while in good condi- 
tion to be forthwith cast aside in favour of a new 
locomotive of the latest type when it is more 
economical to do this than to spend money in 
repairs. A similar tendency obtains in the human 
world in so far as the untrained are displaced by 
the skilful, and when men who are approaching 
middle life are set aside in favour of the young. The 
principle of efficiency may indeed become a tool 



Efficiency as an Ideal 3 

in the hands of the soul-less corporation. The 
strife for efficiency is in a measure the struggle 
of the fittest or strongest to survive. Thus the 
modern tendency has its pathetic side. It is well 
to consider this side very carefully and ask what 
should be done to counteract it. The new move- 
ment is, however, far larger than this. Our inter- 
est is to determine how far the idea of efficiency 
can be carried at its best. 

On the whole, the movement in behalf of effi- 
ciency means an intelligent effort to provide for 
individual work under conditions more favourable 
for all concerned. Hence in the organisations and 
lines of business in which the idea has been most 
fully carried out, co-operation has been secured. 
Without co-operation from first to last, from lowest 
to highest, little headway can be made. It there- 
fore becomes a matter of scientific necessity to 
provide for the welfare of each employee. When 
it is a question of the best work each can do, 
work that is performed in the best manner, atten- 
tion must be given to any number of conditions 
that would otherwise be neglected. Accordingly, 
more heed is paid to sanitary conditions, to recrea- 
tion grounds or roof -gardens, appropriate holidays, 
the use of social centres of various sorts, confer- 
ences for furthering mutual interests, also to the 
number of hours and the conditions under which 
each employee can work to greatest advantage. 



4 Human Efficiency 

Hence it may come about that while the locomo- 
tive, for instance, is pressed into more frequent 
service for a greater number of hours than under 
former conditions, the expert engineer may work 
a shorter time in order that he may spend his 
intensely active hours more efficiently. The 
principle is complex, and much thought is required 
to apply it to the various industries and vocations, 
but it is far-reaching and holds promise of solution 
of any number of problems that have hitherto 
baffled the wits of men, 

The new science of business has brought about 
radical changes in all these respects. While it is 
not the purpose of these pages to regard efficiency 
as a commercial principle, we may well approach 
the larger question by noting some of these changes. 
The change in brief is from "system" in the old 
sense of the word to "science, " based on the prin- 
ciple set forth by Frederick W. Taylor that there 
is but one efficient way to do a thing, a way that 
may be resolved into elemental principles with 
special regard to the activity in question. Accord- 
ing to the old method, the mechanic arts were to 
a large extent handed down from generation to 
generation, and acquired in a more or less hap- 
hazard manner. The machinery and tools were 
not always adapted to the purposes for which they 
were employed, and comparatively little attention 
was given to securing a large output with an 



Efficiency as an Ideal 5 

economical expenditure of time. Under the new 
order of things, recognition is given to the fact 
that each kind of work has laws of its own which 
should be taken into account and kept free from 
confusion with the best methods of doing other 
kinds of work. It also means recognition of the 
fact that there are average workmen and first- 
class workmen, manual labourers and brain-workers 
and need for closer co-operation between these. 
Heretofore, the work of those who plan and those 
who execute has not been kept sufficiently distinct, 
nor have there been a sufficient number of func- 
tional foremen and instructors to carry out the 
ideas of those who plan and manage. In the large 
establishments, where the new method has been 
scientifically applied, there are not only heads of 
departments but time-planners whose province 
it is to develop schedules according to the type 
of work, the degree of skill, differences in cerebral 
capacity, in physical strength and nerve-power. 
Each workman is assigned a task for the day 
according to his training and his powers, and with 
a view to adequacy in the use of the resources 
or machinery at hand. Efficiency as thus elabor- 
ately sought means decrease in the cost of pro- 
duction under better conditions, saving of time 
under careful supervision, increase of output, 
better workmen attracted by higher wages, and 
the standardisation of materials and equipment. 



6 Human Efficiency 

Otherwise stated, the modern idea of efficiency 
involves saving of time, energy, and money, in pro- 
duction and distribution. It means closer connec- 
tion between departments, hence more unity in the 
system as a whole. It calls for experts at every 
important point, and has room for expert service 
in every department. The system has not been 
introduced without opposition, and long experi- 
mentation, as Mr. Taylor and others have shown 
in recent periodical literature. But such is the 
history of every idea of real value. 

The objection to such a system is that it seems 
to be one more scheme for the benefit of the capi- 
talist. Under its use the manual labourer would 
appear to be an instrument whose energies are to 
be employed to the full while they last. To 
drive oneself to accomplish as much as possible 
in a given length of time, with a time-schedule 
ever before the eye, would apparently be to draw 
upon one's reserves to the limit, presently to be 
as useless as the locomotive that once drew the 
fastest express but now is not even serviceable on 
the leisurely schedule of the milk- train. These 
objections are serious enough, and the problem 
of the right use of our energies is one that must be 
considered in a separate chapter, but everything 
depends upon one's understanding of the system 
and the extent to which the principle is carried. 

The term " efficiency' ' is in the largest sense a 



Efficiency as an Ideal 7 

synonym for the art of life, for adaptation to 
nature. As a higher animal, a part of nature, man 
is efficient if able to protect himself, to provide 
sustenance and shelter, and maintain his strength. 
As a social being, he attains the standard if not 
merely able to provide for his family but so to 
adjust himself to economic conditions in a world 
where competition is intense as to minister to the 
manifold interests of human nature in its wondrous 
variety. The husband must be efficient as a wage- 
earner and in a hundred other ways, the wife as 
mother in respects that tax her affection, intelli- 
gence, ingenuity, and strength in full measure. 
Thus the idea extends into the whole of life and 
the economic adjustment becomes intense in pro- 
portion as the wants of a family increase. The 
test questions turn about the relation between 
efficiency in a commercial sense and efficiency as 
applied to the physical, moral, and spiritual welfare 
of society at large. 

A merely commercial idea of efficiency would 
have regard for economy in the cost of production 
and distribution, so that there might be increase in 
dividends. But experience may show that com- 
mercial efficiency is furthered by conditions under 
which the workman also benefits through increased 
skill, higher wages, and better conditions. Indus- 
trial and commercial efficiency belong together, 
and logically lead to consideration of higher types 



8 Human Efficiency 

of success. The workman or boss cannot be made 
even a more successful cog in the machine without 
becoming very much more. The idea of efficiency 
once clearly grasped must lead to consideration 
of every factor that enters into human life. It 
must moderate the sternness of the soul-less cor- 
poration, if such exist. In the end it must make 
men and women more human, not less so, or fail 
in its purpose. 

Efficiency as a commercial program seems to be 
for the benefit of the large producer or the great 
department stores and institutions. Hence the 
day of individual betterment and detailed social 
welfare appears to be farther off than ever. But 
this is a misunderstanding of the idea. The modern 
idea is indeed a product of the great industries. 
In the large enterprise there is room for elaborate 
organisation, and this is the field in which to try 
out the science. In the smaller business many 
tasks must be assigned to each employee and 
foreman. In the home the housewife must be 
skilled in any number of arts, and it is difficult to 
separate planning from execution in such a way as 
to secure freedom for each person to contribute 
the best that can be given. Yet division of labour 
and efficiency are not identical. The ideal is to 
make each person more efficient, whatever his 
work or capacity, and whatever the facilities at his 
disposal. It is never a mere question of mechani- 



Efficiency as an Ideal 9 

cal equipment and external co-operation. Effi- 
ciency means not only economy of time and energy 
but advancement in many other directions, as we 
shall presently see more clearly. In so far as it 
becomes a mental and moral ideal, including 
the conservation of human energy, it may be 
realised in the world of moral conduct even when 
the physical conditions are not what they might 
be. Hence there is no reason for limiting the idea 
to the large industries. The more relentlessly 
the idea is developed in the commercial world, the 
greater will be the reasons for extending the princi- 
ple of mental and moral efficiency into all depart- 
ments of life. 

Looking at the matter from the point of view 
of the individual, the first need is that each man 
shall find something that he can do and do well, 
thereby gaining the power required for advance- 
ment. He may then make a study of the conditions 
most likely to secure progress. The man who 
becomes a skilled workman or manager does not 
necessarily begin in the occupation in which he 
eventually achieves success, but he puts his ener- 
gies in motion and then uses his powers of initiative. 
For every man must learn the art of work, acquir- 
ing the power to apply himself, to be thorough, to 
hold out. This means concentration on the task 
at hand with a view to cutting down the waste, 
observation to see wherein the work can be im- 



io Human Efficiency 

proved, what conditions should be changed, what 
alterations should be made in the machinery and 
in executive management. The artisan may have 
no opportunity to make changes or introduce 
improvements, for his ideas may not be wanted. 
But he can think. He can learn the art of adapta- 
tion, patiently biding his time. He can acquire 
control, and store away knowledge. If he takes 
the long look ahead, watching to see whither trade is 
tending, what changes are imminent, in what place 
to locate, he will be in a position to strike out and 
reveal his talent or genius. What he needs above 
all is initiative, creative ideas, definite plans of 
action to which he can give himself in full vigour. 
While he may not be wanted as an expert workman 
he may indeed be eagerly sought for as a planner 
or executive manager. Thus mental application 
to a purely manual task may lead the way through 
mere routine to intellectual efficiency. Efficiency 
as an individual ideal is without limits. 

Some of the most expert men and women in the 
world gained their preliminary training in remote 
fields. Success in an undertaking does not neces- 
sarily mean long preparation in that type of work. 
The man who watches his opportunity is able to 
seize upon certain directive ideas, learn an import- 
ant method, then carry over into the new occupa- 
tion the power and the ideas which he has acquired 
elsewhere. The occasion that "makes the man" 



Efficiency as an Ideal u 

is an event that summons into full activity the 
best habits, forces, and ideas which various experi- 
ences have produced. Co-ordination of powers is 
oftentimes of more consequence than specific skill. 
Granted a certain command of the resources that 
constitute a live individual, the other requisites 
may be quickly acquired. Thus a good teacher will 
turn to a new subject and begin successful instruc- 
tion in it by reading a few lessons ahead of the 
class, or a wide-awake young man in need of 
employment will consult works of reference in a 
library and secure a position over the heads of men 
who have had experience in that field. The 
development of the modern idea in scientific form 
will enable an increasing number to grasp and 
apply the principles although they may not have 
been trained in a scientific establishment. 

A common mode of regarding the question of 
successful work is in the light of the training 
required to fulfil the duties of the chosen vocation. 
Hence many young people wait until they have 
found a congenial occupation before they begin 
to become efficient. Or, efficiency is identified 
with manual skill and there the matter is supposed 
to end. But it is a mistake to postpone the day of 
preparation, or wait for the right leaders. The 
greatest time-planner in the world could not 
create efficiency. Increased efficiency at one point 
calls for efficiency at all points. The way to learn 



12 Human Efficiency 

this and to prove it is to begin with the individual, 
that is, with yourself. One can hardly consider 
the matter in full seriousness without gaining a 
new view of the whole of life. For this question, 
we insist, is not limited to economic conditions 
and tendencies. Nor is it a mere question of 
environment. There may of course be factors at 
work which make it difficult even for the most 
skilled labourer to find a place worthy of his powers. 
It is not alone the soul-less corporation that makes 
this difficult, but unfortunate restrictions placed 
on skilled performance by the labour unions which 
tend to bring down the average, hence to discour- 
age efficiency. Nevertheless, there is always room 
for the growth of inner efficiency, for the develop- 
ment of the individual through acquisition of the 
power that creates occasions. Our inquiry begins 
in earnest when we learn how we are actually 
using our energies to-day. 

A teacher of ethics, dissatisfied with the usual 
results of class-room instruction, once asked a 
hundred young men and women to take careful 
note for a week of the way they lived, their modes 
of work, methods of thought, manner of resting, 
taking pleasure, and the like. He did not preach 
to them or propound a moral doctrine, but merely 
asked them to observe. The results were gratify- 
ing in the extreme. The thought required to make 
these discoveries revealed manifold directions in 



Efficiency as an Ideal 13 

which improvements could be made. Better 
methods of study, wiser modes of living, and higher 
ideals followed in due time as matters of course. 
Such results prove that the self-consciousness 
demanded for purposes of observation is worth 
while. They show, in fact, that without taking 
careful thought to learn how we now live and 
work, we can hardly expect to work and live in 
any better way. Sometimes, as a wise man has 
remarked, " nothing succeeds like failure. " 

In due course, there will doubtless be vocational 
and other experts who will carry these matters 
farther back through wise advice given to the 
young in plastic periods. Education for effi- 
ciency will then become the standard. But first 
we must educate our experts. The expert who shall 
show us how to find ourselves, summon ideals into 
actuality, and point out the best we can do, must 
have a firm grasp of fundamental principles, 
must begin with himself. For, plainly, something 
more is required than knowledge of the various 
vocations and professions under the changing 
conditions of our time, supplemented by a working 
scheme of the four types of human character by 
which people are judged. Something more than 
disinterested desire to serve humanity is also 
required, namely, insight, coupled with a wide 
range of sympathies. There must be a method 
by which to learn through skilful conversations 



14 Human Efficiency 

and the study of written reports, what manner of 
man the youth in question is tending to become. 
Again, the vocational expert may well make use of 
every aid, such as acute observation of facial 
characteristics, general appearance, handwriting, 
hints gathered from mannerisms, deportment, 
modes of speech, and from inferences based on 
general impressions. Yet back of all this lies the 
necessity for a science of human nature fundamen- 
tal alike to the vocations, the professions, and to 
life. Hence we have to do with precisely the same 
need which faces the individual who takes all 
these matters into his own hands. Efficiency is 
not merely a vocational idea but pertains to the 
whole of life. It is a human question. 

Until our attention is called to the deeper 
considerations, we are apt to think of efficiency as 
wholly external, well exemplified by the carpenter 
who knows how to mold and fit boards because he 
has been trained to use appropriate tools in method- 
ical fashion. Industrial efficiency at large appears 
to be no less external. This is of course why the 
whole question apparently revolves about the idea 
of making a livelihood, or attaining commercial 
success. The transition is easy to a merely material- 
istic theory of economics or social reform. To hold 
such a view would be to give vocational advice 
accordingly, thereby aiding every one to find his 
place in the hard-and-fast world of business. 



Efficiency as an Ideal 15 

Not even in the commercial world, however, 
does such a view obtain exclusively. The problem 
of efficiency becomes a moral one for every em- 
ployer and for every worker who endeavours to do 
his best, what is right. No thoughtful man 
is likely to be satisfied unless endeavouring to 
make himself more efficient, and this interest very 
quickly leads out of the commercial and the exter- 
nal into the moral world. Self-knowledge and the 
control of energy enable men in all the walks of 
life to become more efficient. The better equipped 
a man is mentally the more successfully he will 
work at any task, however objective. Hence the 
deeper questions are, What is intellectual efficiency? 
What is really worth while? For educational and 
moral principles must also be subjected to effi- 
ciency as the new test — efficiency not in a sordid 
sense of the term, but in the largest humanitarian 
sense. 

We do not need to spend much time observing 
the ways and wiles of men in legislative halls to 
discover that there is an enormous waste of energy. 
The complete and genuine introduction of business 
methods into the senate and the house, as in the 
case of government by commission, would doubt- 
less result in remarkable improvements. Likewise 
in the schools and in the churches, in the manage- 
ment of public institutions, there is room for 
great improvement. We need not fear lest the 



16 Human Efficiency 

encroachment of the scientific theory of business 
shall mean the greater triumph of materialism, or 
even of commercialism; for it is essentially a 
question of increased efficiency in general, and 
efficiency means in the end more room for higher 
interests. 

In a sense, we seriously begin to live for the 
first time when we undertake to make ourselves 
thoroughly efficient. The ideals of efficiency ap- 
peal to a man even when education, moral suasion, 
and religion have failed. The saying that ' ' nothing 
succeeds like success* ' arouses a response from 
every sort of man. Efficiency is another word for 
success in this practical age of ours. It begins 
in all seriousness with the more central problem, 
What is within man's power? For the radical de- 
fect of many principles and methods in education, 
in religion, in commercial life, is that they spring 
from theoretical considerations, whereas success 
means adaptation to the actual forces and condi- 
tions which confront men and women in the real 
world. 

If the day of the time-planner is at hand, the 
day of the one who shall teach us to understand, 
control, master, skilfully use, and wisely conserve 
our energies must follow. So long as the time- 
planner shall rule, the question of efficiency will 
indeed be essentially external ; but when the centre 
of interest shifts to the energies that must be 



Efficiency as an Ideal 17 

mastered before one can intelligently save time, 
the whole matter becomes an individual one. As 
such it underlies all human work, is of vital 
importance for every human being. 

In a former age it might still have been main- 
tained that the question of the control of our 
energies is an external one, that we acquire the 
art by physical exercise, through out-of-door 
sports and through skill in manual vocations. 
But in the light of the profounder knowledge of 
our day we now realise that more depends upon 
character, and the sort of doctrine or standard 
to which a man is subject. It is difficult for some 
even now to see that this is the case, hence it is 
necessary to be most explicit in the insistence 
upon psychological considerations. 

Yet one does not need to look far even in the 
commercial world to find reason to believe that 
psychology is in many respects the most import- 
ant science. It is now widely acknowledged, for 
instance, that a great deal depends upon the 
impression produced by advertisements, hence 
more attention is given to the preparation of 
advertisements by experts. In fact, more than 
half the success of many ventures depends upon 
the manner of presentation to the public. Again, 
the art of salesmanship depends in part on the 
methods employed to persuade the human mind. 
Every executive leader must know how to approach 



18 Human Efficiency 



those who work under and with him. Back of 
every undertaking in the world of affairs there are 
principles that make for success, hence the psycho- 
logy of success naturally becomes an interest in 
itself. To make the science explicit is to prepare 
the way for a further development of the art of 
success. 

It is significant that Mr. Taylor declares that 
"the chief and essential feature of scientific 
management is the change in the mental attitude 
of both employer and employees toward their 
common work." 1 Hence persuasion must take 
the lead, supported by the long series of object 
lessons which prove to each man the advantages 
to be gained through hearty co-operation in carry- 
ing out the idea of efficiencj". Furthermore, time 
is required to make the demonstration complete, 
a few men must be persuaded, then larger numbers, 
until whole social groups respond. The idea 
grows enormously in import when it is seen that 
efficiency involves the substitution of science for 
4 'rule of thumb" methods all along the line, the 
development of harmony in place of discords, the 
substitution of co-operation as a working idea in 
place of individualism, and the development of 
resources in such a manner as to add to the wel- 
fare of all concerned. This means far more thought 
given to every factor and every branch of work 

1 American Magazine, May, 191 1. 



Efficiency as an Ideal 19 

than formerly. It means that questions such as 
that of just compensation, and what constitutes 
a fair day's work, will be objects for scientific 
investigation, no longer wrangled over in dis- 
cordant fashion. More than anything else, Mr. 
Taylor believes, will be the gain accomplished 
through "the close, intimate co-operation, the 
personal conduct established' ' between the two 
sides in the labouring world ; for it is difficult for 
those "whose interests are the same, and who work 
side by side in accomplishing the same object . . . 
to keep up a quarrel. M The change comes about 
not merely because the workman has grown in 
industrial efficiency, but because he has "acquired 
a friendly mental attitude towards his employers, 
and his whole working conditions, whereas before 
a considerable part of his time was spent in criti- 
cism, suspicious watchfulness, and sometimes in 
open warfare. This direct gain to all of those 
working under the system is without doubt the 
most important single element in the whole 
problem. " x 

The importance of these changes begins to 
dawn upon our consciousness when we realise 
that the whole sphere of interest has shifted to 
the human world, and to the world of mind. This 
means that a prof ounder study of human character 

1 Op. cit. See also Mr. Taylor's recently published volume, 
The Principles of Scientific Management, New York, 191 1. 



20 Human Efficiency 

becomes imperative, and with it a study of all the 
influences that effect human life. We can no 
longer leave these factors to "rule of thumb' ' 
methods but must be as scientific in our study of 
mental attitudes and influences as in the investi- 
gation of the conditions that make for industrial 
efficiency. The scientific study of the mind and 
character of men has long been in process, to be 
sure, but now it is becoming possible to establish 
the connection as never before between the intellec- 
tual sciences and the industrial arts. Whatever 
the occupation, environment, or social position of 
workman, manager, or any other man or woman, 
the subject of mental efficiency forthwith becomes 
a subject of great importance. 

In accordance with these tendencies, the capi- 
talist must as surely become aware of reformative 
influences as the labouring man. The time should 
come when the severe, relentless, cruel types shall 
cease to be. Instead, we should have more heads 
of industries of the type already in existence in 
many quarters, that of the kindly disposed capi- 
talist who has the welfare of each of his workers 
at heart, who confers with them, and affords full 
opportunity for the expression of ideas from all 
quarters; whose ideal is not merely to develop a 
successful commercial enterprise in the face of 
fierce competition, but to be all that is best as a 
human being, a genuine man. For no man is 



Efficiency as an Ideal 21 

really efficient if a mere machine for money-making 
any more than a manual worker can be deemed 
successful if a mere cog in the great industrial 
engine. Hence the time must come when co- 
operation in the largest sense shall not only bring 
labour and capital closely together, but when it 
shall introduce radical changes in the very life and 
system of the commercial world. The beginning 
of all this is in the realm of the idea. 

The psychology of efficiency must win its way as 
industrial efficiency has been fought for. But the 
battle can be won by making the utmost of ten- 
dencies already in operation. One branch of the 
subject readily leads to another, and to all the rest, 
when we once grasp the idea. If, for example, 
there be a " psychology of dressmaking* ' as some 
allege, there must be a psychology of fashions in 
general, hence of conventional life, including the 
power and distributive influence of the contagious 
idea, the law of imitation, the subserviency of the 
many to the few. New light is being thrown on all 
the undertakings of men by this growing interest 
in mental laws and processes. The psychology 
of religion, for example, is one of the newer 
branches of this modern tree of knowledge, highly 
important because in a measure fundamental even 
to modern criticism itself. The result is profounder 
knowledge of the ways in which the mind operates 
in the development of its beliefs, their emotional 



22 Human Efficiency 

accompaniments, and other associates. Thus to 
know what a man believes, or is likely to believe, 
in so far as you may wish to influence him, you 
must know how his mind works. Moreover, there 
are many popular beliefs in our day, all more or 
less psychological in type, involving new hopes, 
sometimes confusions of ideas, and reaching into 
every pathway of human endeavour ; and the only 
way to deal with these intelligently is through 
knowledge of genuinely scientific psychology. 
For example, there are people in our day who 
have gone so far over into the mental world, in 
their reaction against materialism, that it seems 
no longer necessary to take physical and economic 
conditions into account. For them everything 
depends upon the idea, and they see such potency 
in mental attitudes that they believe these alone 
will work physical and economic changes by direct 
impact. The result is a new series of illusions in 
favour of a supposed royal road to wealth and success 
of all sorts, a new attempt to shirk responsibility, 
and to wait in theoretical idleness for everything 
to be made right. It is hardly necessary to say 
that such a belief is even more removed from 
adaptation to natural law than belief in material 
forces as fundamentally decisive. For if we begin 
with material factors we can indeed work upward 
into the life of the idea, while to begin with the 
idea is to prepare for a downfall in order that we 



Efficiency as an Ideal 23 

may first reckon with natural facts. The psycho- 
logy of efficiency must be founded both in the idea 
and in the thing. 

It would of course be possible to overestimate 
the function of psychology, since it is not the most 
fundamental science, and must be completed by 
ethics and other branches of philosophy. Never- 
theless, for practical purposes it is most useful, 
and it may be employed without prejudice in 
favour of any particular economic, religious, or 
sectarian scheme. Psychology is in truth as 
general as efficiency itself, and the disciple of 
external or economic reform has as much reason 
to master and employ it as the apostle of the 
spiritual life. In fact, it is so good an intermediary 
as a merely descriptive science, that the more one 
knows about it the less need there is for knowledge 
of the special beliefs to which men are subject. 
For if a mental master, one is to a large extent 
master of all the arts, able to take the shortest 
course to any end which one wishes to attain. 
Psychology is thus in a sense even more important 
than education as commonly regarded, since in 
addition to the usual accomplishments it adds the 
more crucial one of insight into the processes by 
which educated and uneducated alike ply their 
several vocations. 

The relationship between the types of efficiency 
may be made clear by classifying some as quantita- 



24 Human Efficiency 

tive, others as qualitative. The typical devotee 
of commercialism is interested in making as much 
money as he can, and the corporation is merely a 
more effective means of attaining this end. Natur- 
ally the business man welcomes the new science 
of business, and makes the utmost of the idea of 
industrial efficiency. In fact, he would like to see 
this idea carried out in every department of life, 
and if he could have his way he would modify 
all the schools and colleges so that every boy and 
girl should be trained for efficiency from the start. 
The result would be that time-schedules would be 
introduced even into the college class-room, and no 
subjects would be taught save those which plainly 
tend to increase the commercial efficiency of men. 
So far the standard is merely quantitative, and if 
this standard could triumph we should live in a 
strictly mechanical world. 

We need not look far to discover that every- 
thing of real value is qualitative, hence that the 
only justification of mechanical efficiency lies in 
its contributory power. To insist on the time- 
factor in every undertaking, to endeavour to get 
the utmost out of every man during every waking 
hour, would be to surrender the ideals of human 
existence. On the other hand, the moment even 
the crudest manual labourer, or the most grasping 
capitalist, begins to do his best as a man he departs 
from the quantitative standard. Hence one may 



Efficiency as an Ideal 25 

live in the ideal world although habitually adapted 
to the mundane order, one may be moral although 
holding a subordinate position, and working a 
great number of hours. There are any number of 
undertakings that cannot be carried on upon the 
basis of a time-schedule, since it is thought that 
counts, not things; values, not money; character, 
not material success. Many educational subjects 
are of this type, also all institutions which like 
the universities and churches have the aesthetic, 
cultural, and religious interests of man to teach, to 
develop, and conserve. 

Now, psychology admirably serves as a connect- 
ing science between the quantitative and qualita- 
tive because it relates to the powers which men 
employ in both fields. To be the most successful 
artisan, manager, or capitalist, a man must con- 
sider the problem of the nature, training, wise use, 
and conservation of his energies ; for he must be a 
man of skill, control, initiative, intellectual effi- 
ciency. But no man can thus regard his inner 
powers without raising the question of values, 
what is right, what is worth while. He may indeed 
retreat into the quantitative world, closing the 
door upon the ideal. But to those of us who will 
to be human beings the relationship of the quanti- 
tative to the qualitative is the crucial one. Human 
efficiency begins with the transition into the 
qualitative. Time is a consideration of value only 



26 Human Efficiency 

so far as it serves ends that are worth while. Even 
in the business world men originally started to 
provide for the production and distribution of 
life's necessities, to contribute a worthy share to 
the world's work; and if the commercial interest 
as such has in a measure become triumphant in 
our time we must see to it that it is only for a time. 
To be a human being, a person, contributing 
something to human character and thought, is the 
end that really justifies the use of quantitative 
means. 



CHAPTER II 

THE BASIS OF EFFICIENCY 

STRICTLY speaking, our study of efficiency 
should begin with an investigation of life 
in general. For much depends on the scope of our 
thought. If not devoted to a religious view which 
emphasises the supernatural and has regard for the 
future life, we may be disciples of a modern theory 
of social reform. Hence the first considerations 
would naturally pertain to society as a whole, 
lest we tend to slight one class in favour of another 
or insist on a narrowly defined social program. 
But for present purposes we may assume sufficient 
knowledge of nature, of human life and society, 
also belief in the rightful place of natural exist- 
ence as opposed to a supernatural interpretation. 
Whatever we believe, each must adapt himself to 
this natural world, must bear relations with the 
economic order, and find his place. This is for- 
tunately true even of the least practical of the 
idealists. Hence it is primarily a question of the 
present use of resources and mental powers, 

27 



28 Human Efficiency 

Before we consider the elements of mental and 
moral efficiency, it is important to have before us 
an idea of the efficient life at large. To state the 
need thus is to be reminded of the enormous 
differences which have come in with civilisation. 
Once the efficient life was the warrior's, and we 
have not yet wholly passed out of the period of 
dominance of martial passions and brute strength. 
But more and more we depend on brain-power, 
hence the efficient life consists in the maintenance 
of bodily health under conditions that do not 
readily foster it. In place of the standards of 
human success that once obtained, so great a 
degree of specialisation has entered into life that 
the question of efficiency differs according to the 
occupation and the adaptations essential to the 
preservation of health. But even when there are 
special conditions favourable, for example, to 
teaching as a profession, there are underlying 
principles which every right-minded person must 
consider. Hence the efficient life pertains not 
merely to health, and to prof essional relationships; 
it includes domestic relationships, those that re- 
late a man to society through conventionality 
and friendship, intellectual relationships, moral 
obligations, and religious ties. Moreover, individ- 
uals differ in heredity, in disposition, education, 
and environmental conditions of many sorts. 
The best way to regard the matter would appear to 



The Basis of Efficiency 29 

be, not to turn at once to the principles that relate 
to a given vocation, but frankly to acknowledge 
what human nature is, then consider how the 
ideal man would adapt himself to the conditions 
of life at large. 

For the basis of efficiency is recognition of 
everything that enters into life. Hence it must be 
studied dispassionately, by looking beneath pre- 
judices, beyond partisanship, but also beyond 
selfishness. The efficient man cannot afford to 
ignore any factor either within or without himself, 
for it is his privilege to succeed where his prede- 
cessors have failed. His starting-point is not doctri- 
nal but scientific. He is not thinking of the manual 
labourer alone, nor of the capitalist, not even of one 
of the sexes. His standpoint is human. There- 
fore, beginning as an individual, he must valiantly 
look to himself, making light of nothing, realising 
that it is a question not of deficiency, but of 
opportunity. We need to know what manner of 
men we are, then consider what manner of men we 
can become. The art of adaptation may begin 
at any point whatsoever in the social scale. We 
have already made headway if, free from envy, 
we are content to be the men and women we find 
ourselves to be, not in a merely realistic sense, but 
ideally speaking. 

The efficient man is not seeking to make the 
world over. He is not trying to make other men 



30 Human Efficiency 

like himself. He accepts the world, believes in 
his fellows, depends on natural law, and faithfully 
engages in his work day by day. Inspired by 
self-reliance, he does indeed hope to transform his 
life in some measure, improve his character, and 
take more satisfaction in real living. But he is 
content above all to realise his type, willing to 
live and let live. In so far as he expects to con- 
tribute to the reformation of human society, it is 
through fidelity to the work which his hands find 
to do. Well aware that people cannot be made over, 
that they are seldom persuaded of anything by 
argument, he knows that his power lies in example, 
not in precept. Thus at the outset he conserves 
his energy by refraining from coerciveness and 
officious propagandism. 

This self-restraint implies knowledge of the 
principle of evolution. He has already advanced a 
stage on his way who has learned once for all that 
nothing comes about save by moderate degrees, 
although there may be rapid fruitions after 
months or years of preparation. He has advanced 
further still who knows that no man ever acquires 
anything except through experience. This means 
the casting aside of many misconceptions, pre- 
judices, and fears. It means steady concentration 
on the work at hand. For one is not then en- 
deavouring to acquire secret powers. One knows 
in truth that there are no royal roads. Therefore 



The Basis of Efficiency 31 

one endeavours to advance cumulatively. The re- 
sult is freedom to work and live, without the 
distresses and doubts that harass many minds. 

Whatever our heredity, we begin life fairly 
near the animal level, with impulses and instincts 
to contend with, emotions that struggle for pos- 
session, habits that frequently master us; and a 
body in which all these tendencies reside. Hence 
we all start life in about the same manner, namely, 
as responsive beings possessing a fair amount of 
human capital. As creatures of habit the entire 
conservatism of human nature speaks through us, 
and whatever headway we make must be made 
against opposition. This means contest with the 
forces, inertias, and passions of the flesh, on the one 
hand; while, on the other, we face the influences 
that keep men in the long-established vocations 
and professions, the prevailing economic and re- 
ligious creeds, the limited pathways of traditional 
education. As creatures of self-will, we shirk 
responsibility and wait for opportunities which 
we might create, we ride over our fellows, and push 
competitors to the wall in the mad race for success. 
Only so far as we realise the egotisms of human 
nature yet see beyond them, are we likely to make 
sure headway in transforming character. 

Time was when we would have condemned our- 
selves for our sin, for the possession of laziness, 
irascibility, and sensuality. But the efficient man 



32 Human Efficiency 

takes himself in all respects as he is, so far as 
resources and elements are concerned, knowing 
that the first need is wise use of the forces at hand, 
whatever they may have been called in the past. 
As a wise man recently put it, "there has been 
preaching enough, we have been told without 
limit what we ought to do; what we now need is 
practical help from some one who has learned how 
to do what he ought/ * Transmutation of energy 
is the modern ideal. It is a question of the nature 
and training of the will, the nature of ideals, the 
art of concentration, and the laws of evolution 
of human character. To look at the matter in this 
light is to be able to develop a program without 
paralysing self-condemnation or benumbing self- 
disparagement. That is, we first look at life in 
mental terms, leaving ultimate issues for future 
occasions. To begin to do what we ought is to 
consider how to utilise every power that is in us 
so that it shall serve all the other parts. In the 
light of this standard, self-condemnation is waste 
of energy. So is discouragement, regret, jealousy, 
bitterness. 

But if we begin life as creatures of impulse and 
habit, we also begin with certain activities which 
send us forth to accomplishment. The significant 
consideration is not what we came from, not the 
forces that tend to draw us back or hold us down, 
but the life which ever rises with fresh zeal and 



The Basis of Efficiency 33 

newness of heart. Hence mere analysis of the 
factors and conditions which have made us what 
we are is of slight avail in comparison with the 
indomitable spirit that uses them. The man who 
becomes efficient is the one who starts his organism 
in motion, who keeps in motion, learns by doing, 
and acquires his knowledge of the highway to suc- 
cess by actively thinking along the road that leads 
into it. 

The first stage of reflection naturally pertains 
to our desires. That is, we find ourselves pursu- 
ing certain ends because of native promptings or 
aptitudes, and almost before we ask what we 
can do best we discover that we are already doing 
it in part. But art leads to science, and after a 
time we realise that the eligible desires should be 
co-ordinated because they tend to further our end, 
while other ideas should be permitted to run out 
because they tend to defeat our purpose. Thus the 
one who wills to be a teacher turns from tendencies 
which would make a commercial man of him and 
concentrates on chosen subjects which he is pre- 
pared to teach. He selects people of a certain age 
to instruct because best adapted to them. As the 
years pass he gives increasing attention to a 
branch of his subject in which he hopes to excel. 
His ideal as a teacher enables him to select between 
avocations, opportunities for rest, recreation or 
pleasure, and so to shape his life as to add to its 



34 Human Efficiency 

efficiency year by year. In this way there is a 
gradual shifting of interest from mere desires and 
tendencies to ideals. Thus efficiency takes its 
clue from the drawing power of the ideal, the co- 
ordinating influence of a standard. 

The starting-point is in the self-reliant discovery 
that each of us has a right to be, each can do a 
work in the world, and the world is large enough 
to need our individual contributions to art and 
science. Rightly stated, this ideal includes every- 
body, whatever his heritage or talent, whatever his 
education or calling. For the humblest man on 
earth can apply his powers of thought to the condi- 
tions in which he is placed, observe what is about 
him, and begin to learn its tendencies and laws. 
Education is wider than environment, more inclu- 
sive than any institution or system of training. 
Education at its best springs from the use a man 
makes of his powers of thought, supplemented by 
the opportunities afforded by his environment 
and experience. If it were primarily dependent 
on heredity or native talent, or chiefly a question 
of institutional training, we should have far more 
educated men than society now possesses. 

Very much depends, therefore, on knowledge 
of the disposition or temperament with which we 
begin life, supplemented by knowledge acquired 
through experience or education, but far more on 
the will or character which uses these agencies 



The Basis of Efficiency 35 

as means to ends. Character should, as a recent 
writer says, be " carefully distinguished from 
disposition, for which it is often mistaken. Dis- 
position or temperament is the individual consti- 
tution which comes to one through inheritance. 
It is the racial-ancestral-parental bequest to the 
individual. It is his capital or insolvency, as the 
case may be. He may weld it into character; but 
as yet it is not . . . character. Ml 

Successful mental life begins with the selection 
of means that promise well for the expression and 
development of character, within or without the 
institutions, the usual vocations and professions. 
For it involves initiative and a measure of indepen- 
dence, hence is free to choose one of several roads, 
adopting original methods, departing from custom 
or making full use of it, as the case may be. It 
puts an objective before the mind, a goal to be 
won. The mere ideal, steadily and persistently 
pursued, is a sufficient incentive at times. At 
other times, downright effort to overcome the 
obstacle directly in the way is demanded. Thus 
the youth who long dreams of becoming a legis- 
lator, physician, artist, or author, may reach a 
point as a young man when he must break with 
the entire family tradition. Another crisis may 
come when the intellectual life has done its best 
for him, and everything depends upon his passion 

1 Buckham, Personality and the Christian Ideal. 



36 Human Efficiency 

for the ideal, the ardent loyalty which takes 
exception to the measured pace of custom and 
creates a new way. 

Efficiency is not then a product of one side of 
our nature, but is the whole mind in productive 
exercise. One acquires it through the discovery 
of native capacities, such as executive ability or 
creative imagination; through latent capacities 
brought out incidentally to meet an emergency or to 
fill another's place, through promotion, the sudden 
acceptance of responsibility; as well as through 
education in the usual sense of the term, train- 
ing, self-knowledge, and discipline. We become 
efficient not only by learning to do one thing well, 
by developing all our powers so as to use them to 
best advantage through economy of energy, but 
by keeping at' our work when enticing interests 
draw the mind into side-issues. Thus while 
native tendencies or talents may point the way and 
show what one can best do, the will may more 
and more take command, narrowing the field for 
purposes of concentration or loyalty, mayhap 
suddenly shifting to an allied occupation. 

Thorough knowledge of the self would show 
what phases of mental life are native, such as 
instincts, impulses, passions, habits, aptitudes ; 
what are acquired through discrimination, the 
selection of incentives, the unifying powers of the 
will, through analytical or constructive thought; 



The Basis of Efficiency 37 

and what ones are due to experience through 
contact with the world and various types of men. 
The logical result would be a criterion showing to 
what extent the intellectual life should be allowed 
to take the lead without unduly interfering with 
the spontaneities, how far custom may be followed 
without sacrificing independence, originality, and 
freedom. For efficiency is a balance between 
native and acquired characteristics. It is nothing 
if not acquired, and yet the training by which it is 
gained should never be permitted to extend so far 
that the joys of life shall be overcome. 

Since efficiency has a physical and nervous 
basis, many of us first become aware of its oppor- 
tunities through the control we possess over the 
body through skill in physical exercise. We also 
realise its benefits through that state of bodily 
well-being which leaves us free to work, yet insures 
rest, the wise use of nervous force and adaptation 
to the conditions which nature imposes. 1 But 
bodily control implies a parallel development on 
the mental side. Hence the freedom from nervous- 
ness, the control at the centre which is in large 
part the secret of bodily efficiency, finds its coun- 
terpart in poise, absence of fear, freedom from 
anxiety and all other mental states that tend to 

1 Among many recent treatises that bear on these matters one 
of the best is The Efficient Life, by Dr. L. H. Gulick; New York, 
Doubleday, Page & Co., 1909. 



38 Human Efficiency 

scatter the thoughts. In the efficient mind all 
decisions are emphatically made and promptly 
acted upon; there is wise use of habits through 
possession of an inner order or system which is 
superior to them; and increasing control through 
self-knowledge, constancy, firmness, and the other 
qualities, which express the constructive will. 
There is also room for perspectives, side-lights, and 
the repose which comes through the possession 
of an avocation supplementing the vocation. 
There is method, yet freedom to depart from 
it. 

Does this enumeration involve so much that 
only the master mind can realise the ideal? Effi- 
ciency is in a measure a synonym for mastership, 
yet it is no less truly an ideal for the man of aver- 
age capacity. The man or woman with fewer 
interests and less capacity than the person with 
pronounced talents sometimes becomes efficient 
more quickly. The humblest calling is dignified 
by the manner of its fulfilment. Efficiency is not 
necessarily many-sided, but the efficient life 
is one that is contributory to the general good, 
a life in which, whatever the specific task, there is 
growth furthered by productive self-knowledge, 
a life characterised by purpose, inspired by an 
ideal, consecrated by earnest endeavour. 

The difficulties we encounter in the endeavour 
to apply this standard to all the vocations and 



The Basis of Efficiency 39 

professions are doubtless due to lingering traditions 
which separate manual from mental and spiritual 
work. In accordance with the ideals of modern 
life, we are assuming in the present study that 
physical work when well done implies spiritual 
qualities, and that the true spiritual leader is able 
to w T ork by the sweat of his brow. The fully 
awake human being faces practically the same 
situation, with somewhat the same needs, tempta- 
tions, and opportunities. Hence in every well 
regulated life there is inner unity or co-ordination, 
selection and concentration amidst a multitude of 
promising interests, a sound mind in a sound body ; 
there is power to express sentiment and affection 
or to withhold it, power to be very personal, 
intimate, or to be remote, dispassionate, judicial. 
In such a life the sympathies are regulated yet 
kept thoroughly alive, childlikeness is preserved 
and habit is employed without employing. In its 
higher reaches this inner control preserves a 
balance between spirit and form. Ideas, and 
reasons, are given place, but room is reserved for 
the deeper receptivity, for self-abandonment, the 
free expression of thought and feeling, the carrying 
power of consecrated obedience. There is regard 
for good form, yet room for originality, a balance 
between training and life. The efficient man, 
without talking too much, believes in himself 
without taking himself too seriously, is willing 



40 Human Efficiency 

to be narrow that he may realise "the glory of 
the imperfect." 1 

Consider what a change would come over the 
world if we were to unite in order to realise the 
ideals of human efficiency by granting to each 
the right to do his best work under the best con- 
ditions. The engineers of the fastest express trains 
between New York and Chicago run their locomo- 
tives but three hours in a day, then rest an entire 
day before starting out on another of the intensely 
exacting runs into which they must throw their 
whole energy for the time being. The close concen- 
tration and exhaustion of nervous force required 
for such a performance compels these skilled men 
to take this long rest in order to keep up to the 
mark. It is matter of wisdom on the part of their 
employers to grant them a day of absolute change, 
during which they may sleep, play with their 
children, or do whatever they like. For these men 
this work becomes an art, hence a means for realis- 
ing the self. The greater the degree of efficiency 
the more reason for granting to workers of every 
sort the conditions under which they can work 
best. Give every man and woman this opportunity 
and you shall have a moral society. This attain- 
ment seems out of the question for many of us 
because of the necessity we are under to earn a 

x See Professor Palmer's inspiring essay under this title in 
The Teacher, Boston, 1908. 



The Basis of Efficiency 41 

livelihood at anything that offers, amidst high 
prices, grasping corporations, the dishonesty of 
the world, the temptation to get ahead at any cost, 
the slight regard paid to ideal interests, and the 
unjust distribution of resources. Yet these con- 
ditions are oftentimes precisely those that enable 
a man to stand erect and show what is in him. 

In a sense it matters little what our occupation 
is, when we begin to achieve this end. Of course 
every one would prefer to adopt an occupation to 
his liking. But the majority of us must gradually 
win the right to do what we prefer. Meanwhile, 
what is more important than to do whatever is 
nearest as well as it can be done, or at least as well 
as we can do it? Surely there is a relationship 
between what we are and what we are doing, some 
reason why we are placed exactly as we are. 

In the first place, to make an art of the common- 
place occupation in which we may be engaged is 
to begin to economise physical energy and mental 
power. Ordinarily a vast deal of energy is wasted 
in vain discontent, or the attempt to find another 
kind of work before we are prepared for it. To 
reduce a prosaic occupation to an art, one must 
put much thought into it, become absorbed in 
careful attention to details. The chances are that 
this devotion to details will yield such valuable 
results that the work will proceed more easily, the 
worker will be happier, and hence a still higher 



42 Human Efficiency 

standard will become possible. To give thought 
to one's work, to compare the skilful with the 
unskilled labourer, is presently to learn that in 
unskilled labour the physical exertion is greater, be- 
cause the head does not save the feet and hands. 
Observe the average shiftless maid-servant, for 
example, and note the multitude of superfluous 
movements of the hands which she makes, and the 
number of extra steps she takes, instead of co- 
ordinating her movements about the house. Or, 
note the people who work and live nervously, and 
trace these diffusions of energy to their source, 
considering in what mode of life they would be 
overcome. 

There is undoubtedly an intimate correspond- 
ence between the type of occupation in which 
one is engaged and the personal development of 
the one who is engaged in it. Hence the point at 
which to advance is in the inner life. The man who 
has not made an art of his work has probably made 
little headway in the mastery of his own powers. 
To accept an uncongenial occupation and do the 
work well is often the most direct road to the best 
that is desired in life. There is nothing, not even 
the seemingly trivial work of building fires, or 
washing dishes, that may not be made part of 
the art of life. It may require but little thought to 
learn to build fires skilfully, or wash dishes with the 
least expenditure of energy, but every phase of 



The Basis of Efficiency 43 

work that is brought into line means so much 
power added. Behind the task is the person who 
makes of it a means to the ideal, the attainment of 
mastership. Strictly speaking, no one should 
care to advance until he masters the work that lies 
at hand in such a manner that to change will not 
be to evade an opportunity for growth of character. 
If one hopes to delegate routine-work to others in 
the course of time, let him earn the right to direct 
others by learning how to do well all phases of the 
work that lie between his present stage and that of 
leadership. 

It has been said that genius is the power of 
taking infinite pains. However that may be, a 
man may be a genius in any occupation for which 
he is fitted. The genius makes the utmost use of 
each little item, sees all there is in a thing. One 
of the best ways to quicken this love of work in 
others is to put such thought and zeal into one's 
vocation that others, seeing one's joy, shall be 
inspired thus to work, too. "To fill the hour, — 
that is happiness," says Emerson. It therefore 
matters more what we bring to the hour's occupa- 
tion than what the particular work happens to be. 
A man is happiest when doing his special work, 
but the work itself never wholly determines his 
state of mind. The work goes off easily and is 
done well, or it lags, according to the conditions 
which make for or impair human efficiency. 



44 Human Efficiency 

It is practically impossible to state this ideal 
without passing over from the prudential realm 
into the moral world. It is a matter of economy 
both to be prudent and to be moral. The well- 
organised, proficient life, whatever the calling, 
whatever the type of person, is the basis of the 
moral life at its best. To be wholly moral one 
must be efficient, and no one can become really 
efficient without being moral. Moral productivity 
grows out of efficiency just as prudence in the care 
of the organism leads out of the life of the single 
individual into the life of duty. The transition 
is also seen in many other ways. For example, 
one must maintain a high standard yet remember 
that people are where they are; one must observe 
special conditions in order to attain chosen ends, 
taking the laws of evolution into full account. No 
one can formulate and undertake to carry out the 
ideal of efficiency as a social principle without 
considering the rights and powers of the other 
persons with whom one may be associated. The 
conditions that foster the efficient life in my own 
case are likely to be required, allowing for varia- 
tions, by others. Hence if I have truly found 
myself, become rightly proficient, I am likely to 
understand the conditions which favour efficiency 
in general. Thus efficiency becomes the corrective 
of various forms of negative zeal. When efficiency 
becomes moral it is positive, constructive, and it 



The Basis of Efficiency 45 

may assimilate the virtues of the zealots who have 
tried to be moral before becoming efficient. If 
I know my powers and employ them effectively 
I am little likely to goad myself to insistent per- 
formance, and if I have found peace in my own 
selfhood I shall be apt to inspire it in others. 
Engaged in full vigour in the process of self-realisa- 
tion, I shall not be likely to spend much energy 
in wrong self-sacrifice. These questions will be 
considered more at length in a later chapter. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL POINT OF VIEW 

HAVING regarded the nature of efficiency in 
general, we now turn to the more specific 
consideration of the mental conditions and powers 
which foster the efficient life. We shall assume 
that the importance of physical health and exer-. 
cise is recognised as a basis, and also that the 
training acquired through the usual sources of 
education is a necessary element. Every one has 
a measure of acquaintance with the physical, 
economic, and other external conditions of life. 
We all possess in some degree a doctrine or creed 
which pertains to the life within. We begin to fail 
at the point where, for those who think for them- 
selves, the transition is made from training or 
education, economic creed or religion in general to 
the study of our powers as mental beings. How- 
ever extensive our knowledge, therefore, it is 
important to begin by direct observation the 
study of the mental activities that underlie every 
undertaking. 

4 6 



The Psychological Point of View 47 

At first thought, no argument would appear 
to be needed to show why we should study the 
human mind. It w r as long ago said and accepted 
that "in the world there is nothing great but man, 
and in man there is nothing great but mind. " 
Yet the average man has made little advancement 
in the study of his own mind. One would suppose 
that as all accomplishments are partly mental, and 
since man is nothing if not practical, the utmost 
attention would be given to the study of the mind 
with a view to increasing its efficiency. On the 
other hand, it is a law of human experience that 
the most important attainments come late if not 
last. Moreover, there are other reasons why the 
study of the mind has been neglected, as we shall 
presently see. 

There is nothing more bewildering to the aver- 
age reader who seeks to apply what he reads than 
to pick his way through the ordinary psychology 
with the hope of learning useful principles. The 
descriptions of mental life are often singularly 
lacking in reference to facts as the plain man 
knows them. When science lags so far behind, it 
is not strange that the rest of the world is ignorant. 
To be sure, psychologists have begun to realise 
this deficiency and are seeking to overcome it. 
Psychology was once merely speculative and 
undertook to explain mental life by assuming the 
existence of various qualities which no one ever 



48 Human Efficiency 

experienced, and the existence of a soul divided 
into independent faculties or powers. The em- 
pirical psychology of to-day is an attempt to 
supply the deficiency by describing mental pro- 
cesses and functions in experimentally verifiable 
terms. As a result nearly all treatises on the 
human mind published more than thirty years 
ago are out of date, and are now merely of 
historical value. 

Yet unless one already possesses a clue one 
would be sorely puzzled by many treatises issued 
since the reign of physiological psychology. Psy- 
chology is popularly supposed to be the science 
of the soul, yet the soul is now seldom mentioned, 
and this originally speculative science has become 
one of the special sciences, with its own laws, 
its list of elements, and its precise methods of ob- 
servation. One reads about quantity and quality, 
intensity and duration, and the whole aim of this 
science when structurally regarded, is to approxi- 
mate the quantitative standards so valuable in 
other fields. Some of the most technically precise 
works seem further removed from the mind, as 
you and I appear to know it, than the speculative 
psychology of old. 

If we start with popular and wholly uncritical 
views of the mind, we make as little headway, for 
ordinarily no line of distinction is drawn between 
consciousness and the physical organism. Some- 



The Psychological Point of View 49 

times we hear people speak as if the mind controlled 
or at least influenced the body, but more frequently- 
mental life is vaguely referred to as if it were 
simply awareness of what is taking place in the 
body, together with sensations which arise from 
external sources ; for instance, sensations of warmth 
and cold, of sound, and light. As if in confession 
that this is a faulty view we hear them also refer- 
ring to the mind as if this term were synonymous 
with "intellect," and had nothing to do with 
sensations and the will. Again, they refer to the 
will in connection with statements about charac- 
ter, and a lament is expressed that it is difficult 
to arouse. this "faculty" into successful exercise. 
Instances are sometimes cited to prove that the 
will controls the organism, but the problem then 
is to reconcile this notion with the other one, as 
often quoted, namely, that the mind is a prisoner 
in the brain, dependent on processes of nutrition 
and blood-supply. We scarcely think of pain 
except when ill, and then merely because our 
attention is drawn to a certain locality within 
the organism. We do not analyse pleasure, for 
we are eager to enjoy it while it lasts. Our emo- 
tions sweep through the mind so rapidly that we 
know little about them, to say nothing of control- 
ling them. Commonly we make no distinction 
between sensations, pleasures, pains, or emotions, 
but uncritically class them all as "feelings." 



50 Human Efficiency 

Hence we hear people say, "I feel," with refer- 
ence to every experience in life, even when it is 
properly a question of inference, argument, and 
belief. The relationship between instinct, desire, 
and will, is no less vague. The popular classifica- 
tion under the heads of feeling, thought, and will, 
introduces a measure of order. Yet there remain 
items and powers which cannot be grouped under 
these heads. For it is supposed that there are 
higher powers known as conscience, the moral 
sense, or a " God-sense, " and man is said to be 
" a spirit" with reference to religious experience 
and the possibility of survival after death. One 
hears much about deficiencies in powers of con- 
centration from people who complain that they are 
"unable to apply" their minds, as if the mind were 
somehow different from the self that endeavours 
to use it. We hear, too, about "self-control," 
as if a higher self could grasp and control a lower. 
Finally, the possibility that we have a hidden or 
"subconscious mind" working by different pro- 
cesses complicates these popular ideas beyond hope. 
To turn from this wealth of popular concep- 
tions to a psychological doctrine which begins 
by describing the life of the organism is not to 
deny anything real, but to build on an unassail- 
able foundation with the acknowledgment that 
we are born in entire dependence on the body. 
Although this psychology has not yet mounted 



The Psychological Point of View 51 

as high as it might, it gives us the right direction 
in which to look for growth, with its insistence on 
the fact that we start as creatures of impulse, 
habit, and earthly emotions, beginning as children 
to make distinctions in mental processes which at 
first are vaguely apprehended as one. That is to 
say, we acquire interests of our own, and learn to 
exert our wills, hence take an active part in mental 
evolution amidst states and tendencies which are 
intimately related with the brain. To begin to 
think clearly about the mind is to regard it as 
having evolved, as now evolving side by side with 
the processes that constitute the life of the bodily 
organism. Thus our thought is introduced to the 
conception that the individual is psychophysical. 
A human being psychologically regarded is a being 
with two aspects, one mental, the other physical, 
neither one of which can be accounted for apart 
from the other. If this conception of the mind 
appear to be unfortunate, if unpleasant in view of 
all that we have hoped, at any rate progress 
towards a higher view is possible only by begin- 
ning here. 

Moreover, encouragement is found in the fact 
that there is room for divergence of opinion even 
within the psychological field. There are psycho- 
logists who start with a theory of sensational 
elements, and undertake to build the structure of 
mind afresh in conceptual language, language so 



52 Human Efficiency 

remote that you and I would scarcely recognise 
the subject under consideration. These scholars 
usually make short work of every practical belief, 
and say almost nothing about subconsciousness. 
But others, following the lead of the greatest 
descriptive psychologist, still refer to "the stream 
of thought' ' as actually experienced, pointing out 
that the mind is knowable through what it accom- 
plishes. 1 Following the lead of the latter, we may 
boldly enter the lists, with as good right to arrive 
at conclusions as those whose interests are purely 
theoretical. Professor James is often quoted in 
connection with many popular beliefs, and yet 
there is undoubtedly no surer cure-all for every- 
thing that savours of unsound mental doctrines 
than the great two-volume work in which our 
master psychologist so steadily insists upon habit, 
on association, and the dependence of the mind 
upon the brain. 

We plunge, then, into the midst of mental 
life as each of us finds it by closing the eyes and 
giving heed to the stream of thought. For the 
time being, we lay aside our higher interests so that 
we may become more familiar with the actual pro- 
cesses that are leading us from moment to moment 
into a future which we hope in part to regulate. 
We need not for the present employ the term 
"soul," or even consider in what sense all phases 

x See James, Psychology, vol. i., chapter ix. 



The Psychological Point of View 53 

of mental life may be said to belong to one self. 
We are now concerned with the mind as actually 
made known through experience, swept by emo- 
tions, a prisoner of ideas. No one ever feels or 
beholds the self, and no one controls the self. 
What we truly mean by the self only careful think- 
ing can tell us after we have considered the data 
out of which man rears his sentiments and thoughts 
into a comprehensive idea of the soul. To attain 
" self-control" is to understand and direct the 
psychophysical energies which play upon the 
inner centre. It is solely a question of processes 
at first, the processes which we awaken into, and 
which relate us to the far past, to all that is around 
us here and now. In actual process of evolution 
we do not yet apprehend ourselves as unitary souls, 
but as creatures of lower and higher desires, moods, 
emotions, volitions, and ideas. We may indeed 
will to be consistent selves but we have advanced 
very far in knowledge of mental life if we have so 
far sounded human duality as to know in ideal 
terms what it means to be self-consistent. * 

1 The reader who is unacquainted with psychological de- 
scription will find a very readable account of the phases of mental 
life here briefly referred to in Professor James's Psychology, 
Briefer Course; New York, Henry Holt & Co. See especially 
the chapters on Habit, The Will, The Stream of Thought. Another 
excellent volume with which to begin the study is Miss Calkins 's 
A First Book in Psychology; New York, Macmillan &Co., 19 10. 
In Professor Royce's Outline of Psychology, introductory chap- 



54 Human Efficiency 

Nor need we have aught to do with the old- 
time notion that the mind is divided into sections 
or compartments, not even in the case of con- 
science, or what we call "the heart.' ' The same 
mind functions in all phases of mental life, and 
what we mean when we employ such terms as 
"will" or "thought" is that various mental phases 
are uppermost at different times while others are 
more or less quiescent. It is a study of processes 
not of faculties that is about to engage us. By a 
"process" is meant a change from point to point 
as in a stream in which there is constant mutation 
due to varying conditions and the appearance 
of different activities. Underlying every mental 
process there is a change in the physical portion 
of the organism. Consciousness is acute awareness 
of the events that are taking place within the men- 
tal stream, as an emotion wells to the surface, as a 
thought flits across, as a volition gives new meaning 
or direction, or as one quietly observes the play 
of the stream in general. We all possess this mar- 
vellous stream, we may all observe, reflect, and 
learn. That is the uniqueness, the wonder of it all. 
If my description, made common property, is 
verifiable by you when you once again pause to 
observe and reflect, it may be of value. But the 

ters, the reader is introduced to a type of psychological descrip- 
tion which makes the intimate relationship of the mind to the 
brain very clear, 



The Psychological Point of View 55 

real mind is just this steady play and interplay 
as the stream sweeps down the course of time. 
The description of any special phase such as will 
or desire is merely a mode of reference, not the 
mind itself. When we bring order into our thought 
it by no means follows that order has been attained 
in the given stream. The stream as presented is 
a rich mass of impressions whose wealth is so 
great, whose possibilities so multiform that we 
can scarcely blame those who have tried but thus 
far in vain to do justice to its scope. 

The stream of consciousness, that is, the passing 
sensations, feelings, emotions, volitions, and 
thoughts, as directly perceived is psychical; while 
psychology is the science which undertakes to 
describe and explain the processes and functions 
of mind. We directly apprehend, for example, 
sensations of warmth and of colour, and the psy- 
chical states which we thus become aware of are 
the real objects of consciousness, made known to 
each in his own mental world. In off-hand fashion 
we say that we "touch" a hot stove or "see" a 
red book, just as we speak of the sun as if it re- 
volved around the earth. But when we are careful 
to discriminate between the facts and the scientific 
description of them we admit that what we feel 
is always a mental process, never a physical thing. 
Physiology describes for us the structure of the 
organism and explains the way in which heated 



56 Human Efficiency 

objects affect the skin, or the way etheric vibrations 
affect the rods and cones of the eye so that through 
the optic nerve and the brain certain impressions 
are conveyed and aroused, in correspondence with 
which we have perceptions of colour. Psychology 
steps in at this point and endeavours to tell what 
portions of our experience of heat or colour pertain 
to the things outside, what to the mechanism of 
the body, and what elements are mental. Further- 
more, psychology goes back as far as possible, 
tracing the causes and conditions which make it 
possible for us to perceive heat and colour. We 
do not of course experience a psychological 
state, no one ever felt a "psychological moment"; 
what we feel is the perception and the reaction 
which a stimulus evokes, that is, the psychical 
moment. 

In popular speech we sometimes refer to a person 
as a psychic or " sensitive, " meaning one who has 
visions, sees spirits, or otherwise apprehends occult 
phenomena. Such references imply a survival 
of the former notion that there are special faculties 
through which unusual experiences are conveyed. 
They also involve an attempt to reckon with ab- 
normal experiences before we have thought clearly 
about the normal. In contrast with this view I 
am pointing out that every possible mental event 
as actually perceived is psychical, hence that 
every one is psychical and sensitive. To be sensi- 



The Psychological Point of View 57 

tive is to be capable of receiving impressions from 
whatever source. This means in the first instance 
that we receive impressions through the five well- 
known senses, and the other senses through which 
we feel heat and cold, experience pressure-sensa- 
tions, and the like. If in addition there are less 
familiar phenomena apparently involving lucidity, 
telepathy, and participation in higher levels of ac- 
tivity, these occult excitations are superimposed on 
the ordinary levels of activity, and we should hardly 
expect to understand the less known apart from 
the well-known. To say this is not by any means 
to make light of higher experiences but to point 
out that we can hardly interpret such experiences 
correctly until we have made sure of the facts in 
question. For obviously there is a great difference 
between a fact or psychical impression, and a prin- 
ciple brought forward to account for the fact or 
impression. It is well known that the so-called 
psychic or sensitive is usually one who is either in 
ill-health or is onesided in development. It would 
appear reasonable, then, to approach the study of 
so-called psychical experiences equipped with sure 
knowledge of normal mental life; and since all 
mental experiences are psychical we see plainly 
that we are concerned with problems of the human 
mind as a whole. 

To be normal, let us say, means to experience 
sensations of warmth and cold, pangs of hunger, 



58 Human Efficiency 

feelings of satisfaction, desires pertaining to phys- 
ical welfare and survival, together with thoughts 
that make us essentially human and wish to be 
more than mere animals. To have sure knowledge 
of normal processes is to be able to attribute them 
in some measure to their various sources so that 
in contrast we may know what is within our power 
and what ends are worth while. If, for example, 
I am hungry after a forenoon's work with saw and 
axe in the forest, it is wholly normal that there 
should be destruction of tissue, hence need for 
food, together with nature's warning made known 
through the pangs of hunger. The sensation of 
hunger is not like the bodily waste, I do not "feel" 
my exhausted tissues or my empty stomach ; what 
I perceive is an increasing desire for food, well 
known through long association. All this is part 
of the organism whereby nature has enabled me to 
survive. Habits long ago acquired come into play 
and prompt me to secure food, I take thought and 
bestir myself to obtain my dinner. When my 
hunger begins to be appeased the pangs of desire 
subside, and my thoughts are free to seek other 
channels. 

To say that my patience, my thoughts, in fact 
my whole state of mind, is considerably affected 
by the experience of hunger, and that I shall be a 
more agreeable person after my dinner is well under 
way, is simply to state matters of common-sense. 



The Psychological Point of View 59 

The customs of the world are founded on adapta- 
tion to the psychophysical individual, and ordin- 
arily we pay little regard to the act that the moods 
of people vary with the condition of their stomachs. 
Assuming that we must first give both our friends 
and our enemies something attractive to eat 
before we try to accomplish our ends with them, 
we quietly do this, then proceed with the affairs 
at hand. 

Now why should we not as easily apply this 
acquaintance with human nature all along the 
line even to the highest spiritual state that ever 
inspired a prophet? It is the foundation fact about 
us, and we may as well acknowledge it. 

I do not say that a man's disposition is deter- 
mined by the food he eats, or that the state of 
liver, brain, or nerves shows what kind of spiritual 
belief he will adopt. What I am saying is that 
mind and body move along together, that there is 
minute correspondence between them, whatever 
else must be said about the probable influence of 
the one over the other. There are bodily processes 
that lead to a state of depletion, and other processes 
that bring renewal of tissues. These and all other 
organic and allied processes go on relentlessly, 
whatever else takes place. If we would alter a 
physical condition with reference to which we are 
aware of hunger, we must do something physical. 
We might indeed inhibit the sensation of hunger 



60 Human Efficiency 

by absorbing our consciousness in other ends, but 
this would not in the least degree change the phys- 
ical situation. Whatever I believe or think about 
my food may indeed alter my state of mind, so 
that a once palatable article of food may become 
distasteful, but this change is mental and will 
remain so unless I change my physical conduct 
by partaking of another kind of food. The quali- 
ties of food are physical, the qualities of thought 
are mental. A man's dyspepsia is one thing, his 
mental disposition another. Likewise throughout 
life there is an endless series of conditions and 
events by which we are environed, such as climate, 
changes in the weather, effects wrought in the 
physical organism by liquids and solids, by orderly 
and disorderly functional activities; and on the 
other hand another endless series of responses, 
moods, conflicts, volitions, temperamental atti- 
tudes, and thoughts. 

If we keep close to the earth, noting that mind 
and body move together, we ought to be able to 
proceed from the known to the unknown. The 
psychophysical individual is like an animal in the 
presence of a given environment, and you will 
find him reacting in the first place because of 
instincts which arouse in him a desire to survive. 
To be well adapted for survival in this natural 
world is in the first instance to be normal, and the 
least variation from the standard on either the 



The Psychological Point of View 61 

mental or the physical side means a variation on 
the other side. Whatever a man is physically 
and mentally enters into whatever he does, what- 
ever he feels. Hence to interpret his experiences 
you must take into account all that he is, ignoring 
nothing for shame or for any other reason. The 
more we know about the darkest and hardest 
facts the more likely are we to be in a position to 
throw light on the highest. Man is a creature of 
impulse, habit, and emotion, with now and then 
a thought, occasionally an idea, and with once in a 
while evidences that he is a character possessing 
will and the power to reason. If we regard him as 
an evolving animal in the first instance, we are 
little likely to fall into misconceptions concerning 
him. 

The process of thought which usually takes 
place in the average mind is somewhat like this. 
An idea occurs, suggested by a preceding idea or 
experience, and this idea leads to another by an 
associative process resembling the groping about 
from tree to tree of an explorer in a forest. Most 
people think as they read — from one word to 
another, from sentence to sentence, from page to 
page, from the last page to the next book, with 
scarcely a pause for thought. It is seldom that 
such a mind compels ideas to come, pushing through 
first impressions to sure command of fact and valid 
inference. Usually our thought is driven forward 



62 Human Efficiency 

in a never-ceasing stream of impressions, feelings, 
and ideas. A cross-section would doubtless reveal 
an incongruous assemblage. 

This description is not meant to be disparaging. 
Some of the best results develop out of a vague 
associative process, and it is remarkable what 
order is occasionally called from chaos by an absorb- 
ing idea. If we consciously followed the growth of 
all our convictions they might not be half so 
genuine. Even the best-trained minds seldom 
think in explicit propositions, inferences, and syllo- 
gisms with no premises missing, and extremely 
few have ever tried to do this. We gain insights 
and yield to them, make bold dashes and daring 
leaps, leaving the gaps to be filled at some future 
time, or we endeavour to make them good by 
faith. If we think at all it is in general terms, and 
ordinarily we are content if an idea appears to be 
true for practical purposes. 

While we are indeed prisoners of associative 
processes swept along in a stream of feelings, we 
also carry with us the conviction that these inco- 
herent processes belong together and constitute a 
single life. Underneath the ever-changing surface 
with its infinite wealth, there is surely and per- 
sistently a current making in one general direction. 
We awaken into the events of a new day to find 
this vital current presenting other phases, mayhap 
presenting aspects which involve actual progress 



The Psychological Point of View 63 

on our part. This vital current has flowed un- 
ceasingly ever since the first moment of mental 
life, ever striving, adapting itself to new situations, 
revealing various tendencies. All our sensations, 
emotions, desires, feelings, volitions, and thoughts 
are related to this vital current. In so far as we 
know this we may learn what it means to be an 
individual, and may proceed to put ideals of 
consistency before us. To know it and how to 
adapt ourselves to it is to begin in earnestness to 
gain inner control, to know the self, and to rise 
through conflicting phases of the self into beings 
of power. 

For note that when you close your eyes to the 
external world, when you introspect with the 
important discovery that mental life is a complex 
stream involving all that you are, you have totally 
departed from the old-time view of faculties and 
powers. When you regard this stream with re- 
ference to its relationship with the outside world 
you find it yielding a series of impressions of light 
and shade, heat and cold, of colour, sound, weight, 
and pressure, of odours, and so on ; and this is sensa- 
tion, that is, perception. When you give special 
heed to one of these perceptions, such as a sensa- 
tion of warmth, you realise that the field of 
observation has narrowed, and here you have 
attention in exercise. Now, if you concentrate 
still more closely you inevitably exclude more and 



64 Human Efficiency 

more from your acute awareness of the passing 
stream. You note perhaps that the perception 
of warmth has increased so that you call it "heat, " 
find it hot, hence painful. Here you have ' ' feeling' ' 
in the technical sense, the feeling of pain*associated 
with the sensational process. Disliking the pain, 
you are aware that a reactive process prompted by 
desire has sprung up within the stream. Taking 
thought, you decide to move your organism away 
from the heated surface in contact with the skin, 
and you accordingly make the requisite effort, 
forthwith experiencing the desired result. In this 
process, we have " thought' ' in exercise, "desire" 
eventuating in choice or selection, "will" not only 
in the sense of selective attention but in the more 
active sense of "effort." All this is still within 
the same stream. While you are attending to the 
process of perception, other phases of the stream 
of activity are less prominently in your conscious- 
ness, although still present. To attend is also to 
will, but when you make effort to withdraw the 
organism from the heated object the will is seen in 
more active form. You are all the while observing, 
and to observe is to think, but if you turn from the 
sensational process as perceived to an analysis of 
it, the empirical element subsides, and you draw 
more and more on your knowledge of principles. 
Thus process after process is brought to the 
surface and analysed, function after function 



The Psychological Point of View 65 

is revealed. The elements of consciousness in 
various combinations constitute the processes, and 
the functions are the several ends for which the 
mind exists. What we mean by the "self" is a 
conceptual interpretation of these processes and 
functions with reference to character, the meanings 
and purposes which we identify with the being we 
will to become. The stream is a vital one making 
towards ends, the self we also ideally construct in 
terms of life, as a being who pursues ends. Our 
first need is to know whence our being comes, as 
this living process goes on, with its incentives of 
instinct, impulse, and desire; our second is to re- 
state the life we thus discover in the higher forms 
of idea and will, character and purpose. 

One of the most important features of this 
discover} 7 of the stream of consciousness is the 
fact that the current or activity is central, while 
thought although a part of the stream is a later 
development and is not fundamental unless made 
so through persistent processes of education or 
reflection. I emphasise this fact because it is 
wholly contrary to the theoretical view of the 
human mind which once prevailed, absolutely 
in conflict with any number of modern beliefs in 
regard to the power of suggestion. 

Let us return to the references to the normally 
hungry man. We found him taking thought 
because of the appearance of pangs of hunger in 



66 Human Efficiency 

his stream of consciousness. Thought, finding 
its data supplied, is essentially a process of exam- 
ining the facts of experience in order to learn from 
them and see what to do. Thought enables us to 
analyse, to adapt our conduct to the presenta- 
tions of experience. It is not at first an initiating 
or originating power. Even when it later arrives 
at new conclusions, this arrival is due to the con- 
tributions of experience at the beginning and all 
along the way. To become aware of hunger is 
one fact, to reflect upon it is another; for one 
might become quiet enough to inhibit a rising 
tide of impatience, one might become so absorbed 
in conversation with a friend as to forget to eat, 
and so on. You can think of a thousand alter- 
natives in contrast with the one which you proceed 
to act upon. Thought is infinitely rich. This is at 
once our joy and our sorrow, for while it supplies 
endless channels of interest to keep us from ennui 
it also reveals so many side-issues of theory that 
we become creatures of dogma, creed, and 
doctrinal disputation. 

Emerson reminds us that "the step from know- 
ing to doing is rarely taken, " and we well know the 
difference between good intentions and the per- 
sistent effort which overcomes inertia and succeeds. 
Plainly the experience of effort is more intimately 
connected with the flesh, with our lassitude and 
laziness, than with our good resolutions ; for when 



The Psychological Point of View 67 

we settle down to continuous effort we are able 
to break new channels through and establish 
habits, whereas our thoughts, however good, may 
pass by like the idle wind. When we make down- 
right effort we are made painfully aware that we 
are still psychophysical individuals, not intellec- 
tual creatures in a fanciful region where to think is 
to be. 

Now, thought has its power and it is not to be 
underestimated. Some day we hope to be reason- 
ing creatures, carefully reflecting before we act, 
and we hope to overcome any number of adverse 
conditions. But plainly we must first learn what 
forces will change the conditions. Knowledge is 
power in the sense that it shows us where to begin. 
But the question remains, How shall we overcome 
the inertia and what is it in us that enables us to 
conquer? We do indeed tend to act upon the 
conclusions at which we arrive, but let us not 
overlook the fact that most of us are in the groping 
process of arriving at conclusions. We see as in a 
glass darkly. If we saw face to face we should no 
doubt act at once and achieve at once. But 
taking ourselves as we are we must admit the 
radical difference between theory and practice. 

A thought becomes effective only in case it 
engage attention sufficiently to become an end 
of action for the will, or for some instinctive 
action permitted to rule the stream of conscious- 



68 Human Efficiency 

ness. The hint or suggestion which takes effect 
in one mind will have no influence whatever on 
another, since the decisive power rests not with 
the thought but with will or character. If I pass 
by a liquor-saloon when some one invites me to 
step within and take a drink it is because there is 
no point of connection between that suggestion 
and my character. Other suggestions have points 
of contact but I do not accept them. Others I 
yield to because I am weak, while still others 
engage my attention because they appear to be of 
value. It is not creditable that suggestion has 
power over us. There is no particular reason for 
seeking to cultivate responsiveness to suggestion. 
Sad indeed is it if we need to be hypnotised to gain 
a little good sense. Ideally at least we are supposed 
to be a law unto ourselves. That is creditable 
to me into which I put myself. 

The function of thought is seen at its best in 
the processes of scientific inquiry through which 
we progressively understand human life. Such 
reflection shows us that life is essentially a process 
of law and order, that is, that we are all under 
conditions which we did not impose. Psychology 
makes known the same system with respect to the 
inner life. All that we have undertaken in the 
foregoing is to indicate some of the conditions and 
state some of the laws actually found in the complex 
process which we have called "a stream." These 



The Psychological Point of View 69 

conditions, laws, and processes are given to us, 
they are the same for all, and this universality 
is of more consequence than anything particular 
or private. It is this universality which reason 
reveals, while the tendency of other functions 
of our nature is more personal, particular. Hence 
it is through reason at last that we begin to see 
the way out of our subserviency into freedom 
through wise adaptation. 

Two main points we have tried to make clear, 
first, that the mental stream is the psychical 
half of a process of life. The other half is found 
in the brain and nervous system, together with 
the organic and functional life attached thereto. 
Every mental change is accompanied by some sort 
of cerebral and nervous change pertaining to the 
life of the body, although the physical process or 
event may not be at all like the mental event with 
which it is associated. The second point is that the 
psychical stream is the richly complex process 
which contains all that was formerly attributed 
to feeling, thought, will, emotion, pleasure and 
pain, conscience, intuition, and the like. It is 
now a question of processes and functions, no 
longer of faculties and separate powers. If we 
know how these mental processes normally take 
place we should be able to make allowances for 
deflections from the general tendency towards 
rationality. This means the discovery of psychical 



70 Human Efficiency 

facts as actually presented, and if we know the 
facts we shall be able to make short work of the 
inferences. Indeed, we now know what a fact is, 
it is an impression produced on the sensitive surface 
of the passing stream of consciousness. From the 
fact, if we really analyse it correctly, we should 
be able to infer what its physical basis is, say 
a hot stove, or a red book. Into the impression 
there inevitably enters the mentality which we 
contribute to it, so that a sensation becomes a 
perception. From the discovery that every fact 
is a co-operative result of the sort just now indi- 
cated, we may infer that our participation in its 
production is likely to be affected by the entire 
condition of the physical organism at the time. 
Hence we repeat with new meaning the well- 
known saying that "a sound mind in a sound 
body" is one of the surest tests. 



CHAPTER IV 



MENTAL CO-ORDINATION 



IT is related of an inventor who had nearly per- 
fected a new machine that, in order to add the 
one part necessary to complete his machine, he 
shut himself in his room for twenty-four hours and 
steadily concentrated upon his invention until 
he had discovered the missing factor. He had 
previously worked out the conception of the ma- 
chine in entirety, but a certain part had slipped 
from his memory, and it was this on which he 
concentrated for twenty-four hours until he 
recovered it. A similar incident in the life of a 
great thinker also illustrates the marvellous power 
of concentration possessed by the human mind. 
Socrates is reported to have stood for twenty-four 
consecutive hours absorbed in thought. Undoubt- 
edly by thus giving his mind resolutely to a single 
line of reflection until he reached the end, Socrates 
either supplied a missing factor in an argument or 
gained fundamental insight into a moral principle 
never before clear. Few of us know by actual 
experience what can be accomplished by steadily 

7i 



72 Human Efficiency 

applying the mind in a direction fraught with 
interest. To some of us success comes too easily, 
hence we never learn what can be accomplished 
by resolute concentration. 

Efficient concentration always involves the 
active and steady pursuit of an idea, or group of 
ideas, in which one takes special interest. Some 
have supposed it to involve a relaxation or open- 
ness of mind in which the mind merely dwells on a 
goal, as in the case of meditation practised in 
accordance with spiritual interests. Doubtless 
there should be intervals in which the attention 
is permitted to turn for a time to other interests, 
that the mind may have opportunity to work by 
less active processes, merely brooding over the 
subject of chief interest. Concentration is not 
attained by a single act of will in which thought 
becomes active in a given direction as if mechani- 
cally established there, but through repeated acts 
of attention. Nevertheless, concentration pro- 
ceeds at its best through consecutive thinking, in 
contrast with a mere dwelling upon the chosen 
interest. Most of us are well aware what vagueness 
is, what it means to let go, or emotionally to con- 
template; what we need to discover is the nature 
and value of downright thought in which the mind 
gathers to itself all its powers in response to an 
interest which fills the horizon. 

Persistent concentration is effective in two 



Mental Co-ordination 73 

respects. It enables us to follow a given clue until 
the main point is gained, or to pay attention to a 
single object until we have discovered every detail 
which sustained attention can find. The latter 
process is well illustrated by an incident related 
of a student who began the more thorough work 
of his life under the guidance of Agassiz. This 
student was given the head of a fish and told to 
report what he had discovered by looking at it. 
After a time he returned with a description which 
the great scientist characterised as a fair beginning. 
Sent back to his task again, the student believed 
he had discerned every detail that could be seen, 
but was merely told that he had noted a few more 
points. A third and fourth period of observation 
ensued, at the end of which Agassiz's comment was 
that most of the important details had now been 
noted, hence that there was a basis for real know- 
ledge of the fish's head. The incident suggests 
that trained powers of attention are essentials 
without which we can scarcely know a thing at all. 
It is the province of the specialist in any field to 
see a thousand and one details which the rest of 
us overlook. The beginning is found in minute 
knowledge of one thing. 

The acquisition of power sufficient to attain 
such knowledge is often taken to be a merely intel- 
lectual matter. In the present investigation we 
shall see more and more clearly that control is 



74 Human Efficiency 

partly a question of the organisation and wise use 
of energy, and hence of mastery of the brain. 
Co-ordination, in other words, is psychophysical. 
That man has great powers of concentration who 
also has great command over his body. Desire 
to excel, absorbing interest in a given pursuit is 
likely to give us sufficient incentive to train our 
intellectual powers so that we may concentrate 
in earnest. What we are most likely to neglect 
is the physical basis which enables us to regulate 
and use our nervous forces to advantage. Again, 
we fail to analyse the influences, conditions, and 
tendencies most likely to interfere with the effort 
to gain central control. Before we consider the 
larger question of the control of nervous energy, it 
is well to turn to this the subtler side of the ques- 
tion, the regulation of the mental activities which 
offer interference, when we seek to realise ideals. 

It is the nature of consciousness, we have seen, 
to be efficacious, to pursue ends, selecting them 
according to the prevailing interests of the indi- 
vidual. Thus sensation is accompanied by instincts 
that lead us to preserve ourselves, even to fight if 
need be. Our ideas tend to express themselves in 
action, and some of these always pertain in the 
normal man to his physical welfare and to the 
imperative conditions of natural life. The will 
in turn is the mind in executive exercise, marshal- 
ling, determining, pushing through. Again, 



Mental Co-ordination 75 

conscience is the mind judging in accordance with 
a standard that tends to insure the triumph of 
the right. Religion, if devoutly believed in, sup- 
plies still another incentive which leads the mind 
to pursue ends. The whole mental life may be 
summarised in terms of the strivings which tend 
to preserve the individual, to bring practical 
success, further the accepted social interest, 
provide for free self-expression and development, 
and lead the way to moral self-realisation. 

But if our preferences constituted the only 
efficacious factors of mental life, the history of 
success would be brief indeed. The most important 
consideration is found in the fact that precisely 
because the mind is selective and tends to realise 
a purpose it also rejects right and left, inhibits, 
and endeavours to eliminate. Unless we restrain 
and inhibit we make no headway at all. But to 
restrain means to deal with the energy thus checked 
and to inhibit means to be prepared to fight. 
Hence one needs to know as much as possible 
about the conflicting forces that endeavour to 
defeat all our efforts to attain system, order, and 
control. For increased efficiency means more 
effort to master and govern the activities of mind 
and body whose energies must be transmuted if 
co-ordination shall become a habit. 

A definite clue is found in the description of 
mental life given in the preceding chapter. There 



76 Human Efficiency 

is a vital current running through the stream of 
thought. Whenever we look within to note what is 
taking place we find ourselves paying attention, 
noting likenesses and differences, associating one 
object with another, and selecting desires, emo- 
tions, or ideas amidst a mass of feelings directly 
presented to us. We did not start life with "will" 
as we now know it. The beginnings of this vital 
current, with its strivings, are found far back in the 
stirrings of instinct, the conflict of impulses and 
emotions in which hereditary traits emerge. Later 
a mental disposition appears, and we gradually 
discover the self. We find ourselves reaching out 
to attain even before we know what we want. We 
find physical desires involving interest in all that 
pertains to the appetites and leading forward to 
the life of struggle, perhaps in later life to love of 
warfare not merely with the gun but in the realm 
of trade, or the field of controversy. Again, the 
desire to drink may appear, and any number of 
conflicting or subsidiary desires. Some of these 
may coincide with character, others may evoke 
little opposition. But the main point is that 
consciousness in the efficacious sense understood 
when we use the term "will," with its determina- 
tion to master, eliminate, and to marshall, is an 
efficaciousness that supervenes upon this vital 
current or complex life of the desires. This point 
is often overlooked, because of the tradition that 



Mental Co-ordination 77 

character is ready-made, that the will is elemental, 
and only need be aroused or asserted. 

To awaken into self-consciousness with a will 
to attain a certain end is to find our mental life 
already replete with memory-images and associa- 
tions which, in connection with our habits, pas- 
sions, and instincts, tend to determine what manner 
of man we shall be. Since so much depends upon 
retentiveness and association, it is plain that to 
make headway we must adopt the same principles 
by which this bundle of habits, instincts, and 
desires, which we call the self has come to be what 
it is. For, as we shall see more clearly in a sub- 
sequent chapter, the will is not an independent 
power which can break in anywhere, but it begins 
its efforts simply by paying attention. Hence 
no small part of the mastery of our conflicting 
desires consists in the art of observing them in 
detail to note their tendencies, as we might observe 
the manoeuvres of an enemy. 

"I will study and prepare myself and then, 
some day, my chance will come, " said Lincoln. 
The same law of success holds in the inner world. 
We keep ideals in mind, move along steadily from 
day to day, and in due course see where to strike 
in with victorious activity. When we discover 
that the stomach is surfeited, the organism over- 
taxed, the nervous system tense or exhausted, we 
know that it is necessary to observe certain con- 



78 Human Efficiency 

ditions in order to regain a normal state. The 
extension of the same rational method shows that 
we must allow time for mental adjustment and 
assimilation. The stronger the instincts, habits, 
and passions, the more far-reaching must be the 
method of development by which we bring the 
ideal into pow r er. The important point is that 
when the balance is established in favour of the 
ideal through intellectual co-ordination we have 
power to conquer desires which might otherwise 
appear insuperable. 

It is plain that there are more desires active 
within us than can possibly attain fruition in a 
life-time. We cannot fall back on the traditional 
belief that some of these are too strong, hence we 
must sacrifice our ideals. We refuse to enslave 
the so-called weaker sex in behalf of our physical 
necessities. Mere gratification is out of the ques- 
tion. Nor can we with the Buddhist "kill out 
desire, " since the very effort to do this implies a 
desire which shall be strong enough to conquer 
the others. The only way for a true man is to 
face his desires, know them, enlist their energies, 
and press on. Hence the importance of knowing 
that the will is essentially a later power arriving 
on the field of action in time to take a hand. As 
slight as our power of inhibition may be, it can 
take advantage of every bit of wisdom which ex- 
perience may reveal. 



Mental Co-ordination 79 

The first characteristic of desire is its restless- 
ness or striving, its insistent demand for expression, 
with its subtle endeavour to occupy the entire 
field of consciousness. The second is its tendency 
to run on into infinity, its insatiability. A desire 
is an indefinite potentiality essentially unstable, 
imperative, tending to enslave. A desire is never 
curbed unless from another source, although it 
may indeed in a measure be checked by another 
desire on its own level. Hence the man who knows 
his desires may proceed to outwit some of them 
by giving freedom to others to hold the field. It 
thus becomes a question of survival of the strongest. 
Or, a man will maintain his physical organism in 
prime condition through physical exercise, regu- 
larity in sleeping, eating, and bathing, that the 
whole life of desire may be elevated to a purer 
level. This gives him an opportunity to moderate 
his desires at closer range. 

A more direct way to outwit our desires is found, 
however, when we realise that we may regard them 
not merely in the light of the instincts, wants, and 
appetites amidst which they are found emerging, 
but from the view-point of what they lead to. 
A creative desire may be extremely general, but if 
directed into a productive channel so that its 
possessor begins to invent machinery, compose 
music, develop an executive plan of some sort, 
the desire may then be regarded as an ideal. To 



80 Human Efficiency 

discover a field of interest is forthwith to concen- 
trate in that direction, hence to become absorbed 
in the ideal in such a way that it becomes a stand- 
ard possessing inhibitory power. The man who 
wills to give play to his inventive genius also 
realises that this means giving up many activities 
in which he might otherwise engage. Naturally 
he clings to those desires which tend to further his 
work, welding them into a whole. He must keep 
his body, especially his brain, in good condition, 
for otherwise the mental life will be impeded. 
Hence to the degree that love of work fills his 
soul he eliminates the desires that lead to excess, 
endeavouring to express their immoderate energy 
in the ideal direction. His purpose is thereby 
strengthened so that it works automatically, as it 
were, and almost without thought he refrains from 
indulgences and side-issues, pleasures and types 
of recreation that tend to defeat his purpose. For 
when the will-to-conquer is the prevailing interest, 
the imagination, then the emotions, and the whole 
conscious life are brought into play. The balance 
of power is with the upward tendency, character 
strengthens itself by the powers of the ideal, which 
in turn lifts the conduct into greater consistency 
and strength. 

The same principle is seen in the case of a person 
of artistic temperament, with all that this tempera- 
ment involves. If gifted with an unusual voice, 



Mental Co-ordination 81 

for example, the ideal of devotion to music becomes 
the prevailing motive ; and all desires and emotions 
are valued according as they tend or do not tend 
to keep the singer in prime condition. The desires 
are estimated by what they lead to, and those that 
are favourable are brought together. This co- 
ordination gives the strength to resist temptation, 
for instance, the temptation to over-eat or to 
indulge in kinds of food and other things that 
interfere with bodily welfare. Everything depends 
upon the power of the standard, supported by the 
personality of the artist. 

When we turn from the desires to the emotions 
we find a somewhat different state of affairs. De- 
sires, we have seen, arise amidst the instincts and 
appetites, and are best understood by what they 
lead to. Hence the secret of their control lies in 
the acceptance of an incentive sufficient to afford 
an inhibitory standard. But an emotion is an 
experience that plays round or accompanies other 
mental states, adding to or detracting from them. 
When my desire for a thing becomes so intense, 
for example, that I become angry with people 
who interfere, or enthusiastic over my pros- 
pects, I have an emotion in regard to it. No 
one can help having desires, but it is possible 
to be largely devoid of emotions. The desires 
must be developed, organised, or conquered 
by drawing their life elsewhere; while many 



82 Human Efficiency 

of the emotions may be eliminated altogethef 
by cultivating poise, calmness, and inner control. 
An emotion is essentially my personal feeling 
with respect to a thing, my most intimate reaction, 
and if I develop in such a manner as to be less 
personal, with fewer prejudices, less ignorance, I 
am likely to be less emotional. That is to say, 
the emotional life decreases with the growth of 
intellectual power, although a refining life of noble 
sentiments and affections may take its place, just 
as the longing to serve may take the place of selfish 
desires. 

The emotions vary from the level of merely 
sensuous attraction up to the plane of the highest 
sentiment or affection that inspires the consecrated 
soul. Like the desires, the initial characteristic of 
the emotions is that they never know when to stop. 
Hence everything depends upon the possession 
of a standard by which to discriminate. If a man 
is selfish nothing in him is so selfish as his emotions. 
Likewise a woman when intensely selfish is emo- 
tionally outreaching, grasping. On the other 
hand, when unselfish nothing in a person is so 
outgoing, expressive, and noble as the emotional 
life. It is not then so much a question of the 
purpose of life as of the quality of the person in 
various stages of development. 

If desires wear and tear us, the emotions work 
still more havoc. In a single hour an emotion of 



Mental Co-ordination 83 

anger, jealousy, or hatred may exhaust the ener- 
gies that should have sufficed for a day. Not very 
much wisdom is required to show that in the life 
which is to become progressively efficient most of 
the emotions must be eliminated. For the moment 
we may confine our inquiry to those that obviously 
are worth while. Enthusiasm is of course eligible, 
since if distributed, along the line of the days, 
weeks, and years, it keeps the mind alive and spon- 
taneous. Loyalty for a public cause, for an institu- 
tion, for an ideal, includes enthusiasm and surpasses 
it. Love, in turn, when directed towards the ideal 
and inclusive of people as well as of purposes, sur- 
passes even loyalty itself. Thus in terms of love, 
well understood and related with all that is most 
worth while, we may summarise all that is eligible 
in the emotional life. 

Does this mean that there is no rightful place 
for the passions that stir, leading to righteous 
indignation and a zealous plea for justice? There 
is room for every atom of energy that ever stirs 
the human breast. But it is a question of effec- 
tiveness. Many of our desires, and most of our 
emotions, scatter our powers and lead to no result 
save to leave us either exhausted or at best merely 
free from the passion because we have expressed it. 
Always there is a possibility that this energy 
may be organised. Emotions are eligible if they 
accomplish a worthy end, But if merely explosive 



84 Human Efficiency 

or impulsive it is doubtful whether they bring any 
return. Hence it becomes a question of goals to be 
won. It is the end that should justify the means, 
not the mere origin, or the bare fact of existence. 
Therefore the crucial question is, In what man- 
ner can I best express my zeal? 

The desires and emotions well in hand, one may 
advance still further in mental co-ordination by 
aid of the imagination. Since the mind is depend- 
ent on memory-images and their associates, no 
small part of the process of overcoming the desires 
and emotions consists in substituting a group of 
ideal pictures or mental images in place of those 
on which the lower desires and emotions thrive. 
Like the emotions, our imagination takes its clue 
from the prevailing tone of the mental life. If the 
life be sensuous, nothing will increase this sensual- 
ity in a mind of a responsive type more rapidly 
than the imagery on which the desires are permitted 
to feed. On the contrary, it is through the imagina- 
tion that desire becomes creative and attains 
higher levels. Likewise an emotion, say of fear 
or jealousy, increases in power until it sweeps 
through and controls the mind, chiefly because the 
imagination is called into play and allowed to 
enlarge upon a slight suggestion. To possess power 
to check or to give rein to the imagination is indeed 
to have command over both desires and emotions. 
Hence the importance of keeping the imagination 



Mental Co-ordination 85 

alive yet directing it towards the ideal can hardly 
be overstated. 

We are apt to disparage the imagination because 
through its agency we create all that is unreal, all 
our fancies, superstitions, and many of our fears. * 
But it is important to remember that the imagina- 
tion is merely a servant of the intelligence and the 
will. Hence if we sink in the scale it is for many 
other reasons, while we rise because of the ideals 
which the imagination in part creates. The essen- 
tial is to enlist the imagination so that through 
its marvellous power we may know reality the 
better, conceiving of it in detail, making our scien- 
tific conceptions clear and vivid. 

The chief principle is the power the mind pos- 
sesses to call up desirable associations, create in 
imagination the condition which one wishes to 
attain. There is no direction in which this power 
of suggestion cannot be exercised. 2 It serves the 
man of science, of affairs, as well as the maker of 
character, the artist, and the poet. It is particu- 
larly important for all who are trying to overcome 
unfortunate habits, unruly desires, and disturbing 
emotions ; for by the aid of the right imagery one 

1 Cf. The Practice of Self -Culture, by Hugh Black, Corlis Co., 
Buffalo. 

3 For an accurate account of suggestion, see discussions of 
this subject in Religion and Medicine, by Elwood Worcester; and 
Psychotherapy, by Hugo Miinsterberg, New York, Moflatt, Yard 
&Co. 



86 Human Efficiency 

can set forces at work which will conquer the states 
or conditions which need to be outwitted. One 
may, for instance, put oneself in imagination in a 
more efficient state of mind, in contrast with the 
forebodings, nervous states, and influences which 
tend to intrude on a given occasion. One can make 
the mental picture very definite by calling up the 
surroundings in question, the people whom one 
is likely to meet, and trying to feel in anticipa- 
tion the calmness, poise, and freedom required 
to meet the situation wisely. The ideal picture 
will have the best effect if dismissed in quiet con- 
fidence to do its work, with the realisation that it 
possesses actual power over the deeper processes 
of the mind, commonly called subconscious. 

The suggestion which thus gives shape to the 
mental imagery is an activity sent forth in the 
desired direction. A suggestion thus takes effect 
only so far as it is not inhibited by opposing ideas, 
or is not in conflict with character. For suggestion 
has no magic power of its own, either to control 
the physical organism or the so-called subconscious 
mind. The suggestion is not itself the efficiency, 
but the efficiency lies in character, or in the organ- 
ism. The associates of a mental picture count for 
as much as the picture, or the affirmation through 
which we will that it shall be realised. These 
associates may or may not be desires and habits 
that tend to further the purpose in view. Very 



Mental Co-ordination 87 

much depends, therefore, on the previous co-or- 
dination of desires, the choice and elimination of 
emotions, as above described. 

There are two ways in which this suggestional 
process becomes effective. We may directly work 
to remove strains, relieve tensions, eliminate fear, 
overcome inhibitions; or we may put the atten- 
tion directly upon the goal, picturing it in ideal 
terms, declaring that it shall be won. The ideal 
may be enforced through silent contemplation, 
expectant attention, by yearning in its direction, 
realising in imagination what it implies, declaring 
that we shall attain it, and fixating it through 
intellectual reflection; or by declaring that it is 
true now, is the greater power, is already establish- 
ing a new centre of equilibrium within one's life. 
The objection to this affirmation of the ideal as 
true now is that it readily leads in the unthinking 
mind to the denial of its opposite. If overdone, 
this in turn means the ignoring of the facts of 
daily existence until finally an essentially mental 
method, adopted for mere purposes of convenience, 
is reared into a metaphysical doctrine of a super- 
ficial type. 

It is much more reasonable to classify suggestion 
as a device, not a rational method, but a device 
employed to attain certain ends, and carried to the 
extent of denial of its opposite only when the mind 
is not strong enough to face the enemy. Thus 



88 Human Efficiency 

stated it is nothing more than the common-sense 
determination to know no such word as fail. Thus 
to give oneself to the desired idea need not be to 
deny anything. It is simply the valiant acceptance 
of an idea that leads to action, that breaks through 
the line in the given direction. For it is not neces- 
sary to deny anything if assured that we have 
given ourselves to the ideal, which we forthwith 
set out to make our own through work. The 
secret lies not in what is excluded, nor in the mere 
object of attention, but in the persistently applied 
attention through which we set our energies free. 
What reliance may also be put upon subconscious 
after-effects we shall consider in the next chapter. 

The central characteristic of the human mind, 
we are learning more conclusively, is found neither 
in the original promptings or motives nor in the 
fruitions of suggestion, but in the purpose or ideal. 
The mind at its best is essentially purposive, has 
an aim, and attains ends; and the various methods 
employed are secondary to the life that employs. 
That is, mind is not a mere succession of sensations, 
feelings, emotions, desires, images, ideas, and 
volitions. If this were so, it could never be a 
question of the selection and co-ordination of 
desires, or the elimination of emotions. Hence 
we must give up the effort to account for ourselves 
in merely causal terms, as if mere processes could 
explain all that we are, The moment I begin to 



Mental Co-ordination 89 

give heed to certain contents of consciousness in 
such a way as to understand them, selecting those 
that support my intention, rejecting those that 
are unfavourable, I enter the stream of thought 
with another and greater power. Hence the vital 
current becomes significant in the light of what I 
put into it, what I propose to call forth from it. 

We well know when we look at the matter in a 
comprehensive manner that there are conditions 
which we cannot eliminate by suggestion but only 
through sheer analysis. Consequently, it is when 
we survey the whole field, noting every point and 
every quality, that we really become masters of 
the situation. For the mind is in full power only 
when facing an environment or series of circum- 
stances close at hand. Suggestion may serve as a 
reminder or way of working back to the centre. 
We may sometimes find it necessary to bring 
favourable emotions into play, as when men go 
forth to. war or engage in any undertaking that 
demands courage. Favouring associations are 
always a help in times of wavering attention. 
But when the last word has been said in behalf 
of these subsidiary processes, the inspiring truth 
remains that when we philosophically grasp the 
whole situation with valiant will we are most in 
power. 

It is needless to dwell on the evasions, delays, 
and procrastinations by which we fail to rise into 



90 Human Efficiency 

full power. Suffice it that we can learn to meet 
the issues, and all the issues promptly, squarely, 
and fully ; and that only when thus fully awake is 
the mind truly efficient. Granted the courageous 
study of the whole situation, in which nothing is 
ignored through prejudice, denied on theory, or 
arbitrarily put aside, we may well make it the 
starting-point for fresh suggestions, ideal pictures, 
and wise emotions. But it is through conscious 
purpose with its selective power and its rational 
processes that mastery is attained. 

Hence the successful man is one who studies the 
whole situation to which he must adapt himself, 
making allowances for the slightest possibilities 
of error if a man of science, for all the factors that 
might bring failure if a man of affairs, and thus on 
through the professions and vocations. He has 
both an ideal outlook or hypothesis, a plan to be 
tried, and a working faith or method of practical 
adjustment by which to keep in motion, or meet 
the contingencies of the passing hour. He under- 
stands and makes use of processes, but does not 
allow himself to become submerged by them, or 
in any way a prisoner within the means employed 
to attain his end. Endeavouring to become master 
of an art or science, a type of business, or the 
functions of an official in some institution, he 
becomes master of many arts by mastering the 
chosen one. For the lines of creative mastery tend 



Mental Co-ordination 91 

to converge as mental evolution proceeds, and one 
learns that the principles of success in one under- 
taking are in a measure the principles of success in 
all. 

The man of most distinctive ability is likely to 
possess all the desires, passions, and temptations 
that others possess, and some of these in larger 
measure. The difference lies not alone in the 
cerebral capacity, in the mental training, physical 
health, or even the moral character. It consists 
in part in the steady, and persistent, the detailed 
and valiant application of attention which is 
called to the service of the purpose which inspires 
the man. 

A man's purpose gives him a standard by which 
to measure the opportunities that are open to him 
and to select those that are most directly contri- 
butory. Thus he may, for example, evaluate the 
various pleasures, choosing some because in line, 
discarding others because like the emotions and 
desires they run to excess. In the same manner he 
can assess the luxuries, deciding what ones are really 
what they are reputed to be, what are more truly 
necessities in his case. Thus in time he can develop 
an ideal of happiness regarded as inclusive of the 
wiser pleasures, by taking the nature and function 
of pain into account, and endeavouring to live a 
uniform life. The higher and the more intelligent 
his purpose, the more likely he is to live a simple 



92 Human Efficiency 

life, in the best sense of the term. With the dom- 
inance of his purpose will grow a freedom from 
moods, restlessness, impatience, and discontent; 
and more and more he will become a man of 
character. 

Some one has said that concentration is a form 
of courage. Doubtless this is true, for it requires 
courage to hold to a purpose, to bring together 
all the lines that tend to converge in the direc- 
tion of one's purpose, and to keep steadily at work 
amidst numberless distractions. The best work 
in the world is sometimes done by those who have 
the greatest number of intervening circumstances 
to overcome. The stronger the purpose the more 
willing one is to master obstacles. Meanwhile, 
there are compensatory pleasures. One of the 
greatest of these is just this bringing together of 
contributory lines of activity through mental 
co-ordination, the pleasure of working with well- 
trained associates, and engaging in executive work 
in which the powers of the individual are enlisted 
to the full. There is a zest in bringing matters to a 
head on time, when time is short, and at the last 
moment. Then if ever the marvellous power of 
the human mind is seen, a power in which habit, 
association, memory, intellectual vigour, and the 
will are seen in the most active exercise. Quick 
decisions then follow in rapid succession, insights 
involving years of experience and training are 



Mental Co-ordination 93 

brought into play, supplemented by quick remin- 
ders of things almost forgotten until the last 
moment. Surely, the true nature of the mind is 
here more clearly seen than in the mere leisureli- 
ness or the bare simplicity for which its fullest 
powers have sometimes been mistaken. The 
mind's quickest co-ordinations are very often its 
best. 

The point of our discussion is that for every man 
who wills to become highly efficient there is a way 
to acquire inner control to master habits, wasteful 
emotions, troublesome moods, and all other adverse 
mental states. The power of control is of course 
not mental alone, but also moral, and it may be 
strengthened by religion. But the mechanism is 
psychological, the basis of moral power in actual 
exercise is intellectual co-ordination, and it is 
through the will that the ideal becomes efficient. 
Hence the intelligent man begins at the point 
where he really can succeed, namely, by taking 
himself in hand just where he is now living and 
working, considering what needs to be changed, 
what powers will secure the change, and the 
crucial point at which to strike in. 

Although we have dwelt chiefly on the control 
of the mental dispositions which must be brought 
into line, it is well to remember one of the main 
points of the preceding chapter, namely that mind 
and brain move along together. The basis of 



94 Human Efficiency 

mental co-ordination is control of the brain. Hence 
it is necessary to train the organism through skilled 
performance. Ordinarily, mental and physical 
training are acquired together, as in the case of 
the painter who while mastering the intellectual 
principles of his art is training his eye, acquiring 
manual skill, and a hundred incidental lines of 
efficiency. But it is well for the devotee of indus- 
trial efficiency to remind himself of the mental 
half of his manual skill, and for the intellectual 
worker to make sure that his mental training is 
made complete on the physical side. The meeting- 
point for all types of efficiency is the brain. There- 
fore for every man of us the right training of the 
brain is of supreme importance. 1 It is of little 
avail to think, to make right suggestions, create 
ideal pictures, or even to discipline the emotions 
and desires, unless we also do something with our 
brains, hence with the organism, to carry the ideal 
into execution. Failure to do this accounts for 
most of the theoretical, that is, the inefficient 
people of the world. Man is an active being, his 
organism was made for action, his brain is an 
instrument for action, and success lies in carrying 
the wisdom of the mental world into realisation 
in the external world. 

1 Cf. Arnold Bennett, The Human Machine, New York, Geo. 
H. Doran Co., 191 1. See also Professor James's chapter on Habit, 
Psychology, vol. i. 



CHAPTER V 



THE SUBCONSCIOUS 



OUR study of the human mind has steadily 
emphasised the fact that only in a very 
gradual way does man become conscious, that is, 
in the active sense known as "will. " Long before 
the character begins definitely to be formed, reflex 
or automatic actions have occupied the field. Then 
there are spontaneous movements of many sorts, 
such as those of the child at play, semi-reflex 
actions, responses to external stimuli, and instinc- 
tive motor-reactions by which the individual 
becomes self -protective ; for example, when the 
eye closes suddenly if an object is brought near, 
or when we withdraw the whole organism from 
impending danger. Later still, when experiences 
have been stored away in such wise as to cause 
reactions involving temperament, there are re- 
sponses due to memory-images without deliber- 
ate volition, just as the child retreats even at 
the sight of a hot stove after its hand has been 
burned and associations between the pain and the 
stove have been established. Experiences thus 

95 



96 Human Efficiency 

build themselves up without limit, and it is with 
profound reason that man is called "a creature of 
habit." Volition or will in the conscious sense of 
the term supervenes upon these reflex and instinc- 
tive reactions, beginning its functions when the 
self is able to pay attention, to inhibit instinctive 
responses, and in a measure take command of the 
organism. Hence follow the selections, choices, 
and co-ordinations which we have considered in the 
preceding chapter. More strictly, even the self 
is in some respects a product of the directive acts 
of attention which in due course become possible. 
Will presupposes the automatic and other 
activities to which it gives form. Whereas mere 
self-preservation was the end implied in instinct, 
the will seeks a higher form of expression, that is, 
its goal is self-fulfilment. Hence criticism of the 
impulses leads to the subordination of some, the 
elevation of others. Mere choice leads to active 
decisions in favour of the purposes in view, adapta- 
tion of means to ends, and intellectual pursuits 
which take the place of less developed modes of 
self-expression. Thus the way is prepared for 
moral synthesis, for consistency, integration. This 
is clearly seen in the case of a virtue such as tem- 
perance, an attainment so far removed from the 
instincts that it involves not merely selection 
between impulses but control of most of them, 
abstinence from pleasures that disturb the health 



The Subconscious 97 

of the organism, discipline through the overcoming 
of impatience and other disturbing tendencies, and 
co-ordination of the virtues. The temperate man 
not only controls his brain and through that the 
organism, he not only acquires intellectual con- 
centration and system, but is moderate even in 
the expression of virtues such as self-sacrifice. 
Now, there is a theory that, inasmuch as so 
many of these mental activities lie below the level 
of consciousness as we ordinarily know it, therefore 
the reflex-movements, spontaneous responses, and 
instinctive reactions are directed by a " subcon- 
scious mind. " Further than this, it is claimed that 
our intellectual processes are largely subconscious, 
hence that even in the case of volition it is " sug- 
gestion, " not conscious thought, that is the deci- 
sive factor. That is to say, many activities that are 
obviously physiological, such as the reflex-processes 
of the heart and lungs, are theoretically raised to 
the level of mind, while mind in the higher sense of 
volition and thought is dragged down to the level 
of instinct. The tendency of this doctrine is to 
efface the distinctions which psychologists have 
drawn between the involuntary and the voluntary, 
to neglect the will almost altogether, and assign 
the first place to " suggestion/ ' The conclusion 
is that since the mind is amenable to suggestion, 
success in any undertaking means power to influ- 
ence or win over another's mind; and to render 



98 Human Efficiency 

one's own mind more and more subject, through 
receptivity or meditation, to suggestions of the 
right sort. It follows that efficiency is subcon- 
scious, hence we have been mistaken in our ef- 
forts to advance through intellectual co-ordination. 
It is worth while to deviate from the main line 
of our investigation long enough to examine this 
hypothesis, not only because it is widely held in 
our day, hence must be reckoned with, but because 
it contains a truth of very great value. Human 
knowledge advances through temporary emphasis 
on one factor at the expense of others, and we may 
well take this fact as matter of course. Every 
age needs its general term by which to solve the 
problems that are left over, its limbo to which 
insistent mysteries may be consigned. Hence the 
magic word is now " subconscious/' with its 
wonder-working equivalents. The vasty deep 
beneath this mystic sign is indeed spacious, with 
room for everything that was once classified 
under the head of " unconscious cerebration," 
on the one hand; and for the noblest religious 
treasures, on the other. Out of its abysses the 
spirits of the mighty dead are summoned. It is 
appealed to by the unlettered as well as by the 
scientific. Some indeed will confidently assure you 
that the subconscious does not exist, but others 
maintain that under the guise of "the subliminal 
self" it is the centre and source of countless ac- 



The Subconscious 99 

tivities never before supposed to have a common 
home. It is referred to more and more by writers 
who undertake to explain religion in psychologi- 
cal terms, and it bids fair to usurp the place for- 
merly occupied by the theory of divine revelation. 1 
There are those who assure us that the subcon- 
scious is a distinct or subjective mind, functioning 
by laws of its own, w r hile others speak familiarly of 
the subconscious as if it were another personality. 
In fact, the subconscious region is the supposed 
place of concealment of multiple personalities, 
and there is no end to the phenomena which may 
rise from it either spontaneously or by the aid of 
hypnotism. So broad is the term that it is virtually 
an "x" both in scientific and popular thought. 
Amidst this diversity of opinion concerning a 
matter said to be within the possibility of experi- 
ment by all, can we find a central clue? Undoubt- 
edly, and I shall at once state my thesis, one which 
would be perfectly obvious if we had not assigned 
too much power to the subconscious. There is 
but one mind, and this is the stream of processes 
which we know as perceptions, emotions, volitions, 
and ideas; and this mind is intimately associated 
with the physical organism. In so far as we may 
rightfully speak of the subconscious, we must take 
our clues from what we know about consciousness 

1 See a criticism of this view by the Bishop of Ossory in the 
Hibbert Journal, January, 191 1. 



ioo Human Efficiency 

and the character of the individual. All that we 
know about the deeper levels of the stream of 
thought is learned by inference from our active 
consciousness. Hence the more knowledge we 
have of conscious processes the better prepared we 
shall be to understand the subconscious. We are 
likely to employ the latter term less instead of 
more frequently as our knowledge increases. 

It is chiefly because of our ignorance of the 
profound relationship of the mind to the brain 
that we place so much stress on the subconscious. 
It is our ignorance of the laws of consciousness 
exhibited in reasoning that has led to the assump- 
tion that there is a subjective mind that reasons 
differently. Again, we have resorted to the hypo- 
thesis that the subconscious mind is the soul 
because our ideas are so vague concerning the 
meaning of this eulogistic term. The subconscious 
is not a realm of mysterious powers that accomplish 
wonders through suggestion without effort on our 
part, but it is like a shadow copying the absurd 
as well as the intelligible shapes which our con- 
sciousness casts upon it. 

Now, this is indeed disappointing to some, and 
these propositions need proof, but the result will 
be that we shall be put in surer possession of our 
minds. I had a pupil once whose remarks were 
illuminating in this connection. Having faithfully 
tried to persuade her that despite her increasing 



The Subconscious 101 

grey hairs the proper way for her to begin the 
study of philosophy was at the beginning, I was 
met by this scornful rejoinder, "Well, I do my 
thinking subconsciously/' This meant, being 
interpreted that she never did any thinking. For 
she had an uncommonly incoherent mind, and 
never permitted her interlocutor or even herself 
to finish a paragraph. Oftentimes more than two 
ideas were contending for mastery in a single 
sentence. Never having trained her mental 
powers in any fashion, she could not of course 
count on any subconscious after-effects of any 
value. For the associates of a given idea when re- 
called by us are those formed when w r e consciously 
gave heed to it. The greater the incoherence and 
incredulity of our conscious life, the greater the 
corresponding vices that haunt our subconscious- 
ness. Increase the virtues of your conscious 
selfhood and you will not be greatly troubled by 
subliminal tell-tales. 

Before inquiring into processes which may 
rightfully be called subconscious, it is well to 
remember that the once familiar hypothesis of 
unconscious cerebration is by no means out of 
date. 1 Take the question of habit, for example. 
We readily assume that habit is mental. Yet 
careful reflection shows that while we do indeed 

1 See Mental Physiology, W. B. Carpenter, chapter xiii., for 
a discussion of this subject. 



102 Human Efficiency 

have habits of thinking and willing, while charac- 
ter itself is in part an accumulation of habits, 
nevertheless habits are chiefly cerebral and demand 
a physiological explanation. A German physio- 
logist has said that we learn to skate in summer and 
to swim in winter. It is long before the half-spent 
motions of the organism produce their total effects 
upon us, and many motions go on incessantly. 
It is a matter of parsimony in scientific explana- 
tion to account for as many results as we can by 
referring them to these processes of the brain. 
When we start out on a fortunate day finding 
that we can ride a bicycle, after various attempts 
and clumsy failures in the days that have gone, 
this simply means that the organism has acquired 
the habit. Likewise with many other conse- 
quences. We may have initiated the action 
consciously, as the boy emulates his elders and 
tries to whistle ; but when the result ensues it does 
not follow that a hidden mental process has accom- 
panied and directed the new activity. We all know 
what it is to get our brains into a whirl such that 
consciousness cannot intervene. The more carefully 
trained the brain is through consecutive and sys- 
tematic work, the more we may depend on it to ex- 
hibit the measured consequences of orderly activity. 
When we discover how much the association of 
cerebral events and conditions can accomplish for 
us it is time to speak of subconsciousness. 



The Subconscious 103 

Association of objects counts for so much that 
it is only occasionally that we are in any measure 
free from it. Consciousness is ordinarily the 
accompaniment of the processes of the brain 
which proceed through habit and association. 
This is in large part what we mean by saying that 
the organism is psychophysical. It would compli- 
cate the matter at this point to hold that there is a 
third something between brain and mind. Conse- 
quently we have no reason to expect that a hidden 
power will accomplish ends which are not already 
in operation in mind or brain. On the other hand, 
to say that subconsciousness is a phase of the mind 
as we know it is to find that the term has meaning. 

At the present moment in the case of the reader 
there is before the mind an active field of conscious- 
ness at the centre of which is the idea " subcon- 
scious' ' which he is engaged in analysing. Around 
this centre and fading away into the margin are 
allied ideas, and a more or less distinct awareness 
of the flux of perceptions related to the objects 
round about and to the processes of the organism. 
Ideas rise and fall out of the stream of thought 
engaging interest for the time, then subsiding. 
This interchange is going on all the while. If we 
examine this process closely we shall become 
aware that there are various ways in which we 
carry it on. We may, for example, select a leading 
idea and actively proceed to develop it, looking 



104 Human Efficiency 

up data in books of reference, asking questions 
of the competent, and applying ourselves as we 
might to a problem in algebra. Or, we may take 
a subject under advisement as a clergyman broods 
over the topic of his next sermon all through the 
week. If we are not trained in introspection, we 
are likely to hold that the finished product which 
makes itself known on a propitious day is a gift 
of the subconscious mind. We are likely to make 
this assumption if the discourse thus produced 
appears to exceed in value those which we have 
prepared by the actively conscious method. But 
careful examination would enable us to trace 
every statement to its source in ideas gathered 
here and there, and gradually associated. The 
mind is marvellously quick, and while we are 
actively engaged elsewhere we may seize upon an 
idea, gain a hint, reflect on it an instant, scarcely 
aware that we have thought. The fact that we 
have interests, that we pursue ideals to realise 
them, that we are bent upon accomplishing ends, 
is sufficient to account for these side-lights of 
gathering knowledge. The significant fact is that 
we instantly associate that new and sudden flash 
with side-lights that have gone before. When in 
due course we again make conscious effort we are 
able to bring into a completed whole the fragments 
which we have incidentally gathered and associated. 
If open-minded, reflective, we are likely to do a 



The Subconscious 105 

great deal of this half-conscious gathering of ideas. 
Hence we may to a degree depend on them, we 
may solve some of our problems in this way,thereby 
attaining certain of our ends more easily. But 
these are simply phases of consciousness. These 
less-conscious processes would be revealed to an 
acute sub-attentiveness. They are really not below 
the threshold of thought. The more one studies 
them the less need one has for any term such as 
"intuition" which assumes that our knowledge 
is acquired by a process less conscious than that 
of inductive reasoning. If we would correct the 
less-conscious processes we must set apart a 
portion of our active consciousness to watch over 
them sub-attentively. Then we shall be able to 
advance by improving our conduct. This is the 
true road to success, not the supposed royal road 
through suggestion so greatly heralded abroad in 
our day. All real growth in character and ration- 
ality is from the less to the more conscious. When 
a line of activity is under our eyes we may discover 
what the difficulty is and remedy it. 

We assume that we are decidedly conscious 
beings, starting at a definite point with the accep- 
tance of a financial, economic, social, or religious 
creed, and squaring all our views by its principles. 
As matter of fact, we are immersed in the impulses, 
emotions, ideas, and volitions which constitute our 
mental life ; and few know what it is to have their 



106 Human Efficiency 

heads wholly above water. In terms of the well- 
known figure, we do not see the wood for the trees. 
Some of us are able to maintain a general direction, 
while others have not yet learned the points of the 
compass. Occasionally we emerge into a clearing 
and make good resolutions, but forthwith plunge 
into the forest to grope amidst enticing objects 
that render us unmindful of our purpose. Spec- 
tres of our dead selves arise w T hen we would be 
upright and moral. In business and vocational 
matters we maintain a steady pace for many suc- 
cessive hours, but habit draws us aside when the 
time for relaxation ensues. Since this is what it is 
to be conscious there is less reason than we thought 
to claim the aid of the subconscious. 

To be sure, there are partly hidden clues which 
still serve us better than any that we plainly see. 
Here, for example, is an instance from real life 
recently told me. A business man who knew him- 
self well decided to give up smoking and wine- 
drinking, for he realised that these habits interfered 
with his spiritual progress. He knew that he 
could accomplish little by direct attack, therefore 
he simply waited, keeping his good intention in 
mind, expecting a favourable juncture. Finally, 
one day when some one offered him a cigar it 
occurred to him without thinking about the matter 
at all, to remark rather casually that he thought 
he would not smoke that day. That incident 



The Subconscious 107 

proved to be the turning-point, and when he was 
next offered a glass of wine, a week or two later, 
he as easily declined and from that time on did not 
drink liquor of any sort. Meanwhile, of course, 
he had been keeping his good intention before him, 
making use of all the knowledge he had gained 
concerning the human mind. He knew that there 
is "a tide in the affairs of men, " and had resolved 
to take the current when it served. Thus he 
accomplished easily what he could scarcely have 
gained through a struggle. But of course the 
victory was largely won by the time he quietly 
made his confident resolution. At a further stage 
of development this man might be so far conscious 
as to make the change coincident with the resolu- 
tion. The significant feature of this man's experi- 
ence is that as a conscious being he had already 
reached the point where he more strongly desired 
to cease drinking and smoking than to smoke and 
drink. The attention which he bestowed on his 
resolution gave it such active power that it worked 
within his mind. It was then a case of the survival 
of the fittest. This man's efficiency was conscious, 
not subconscious. 

Our conscious part is to attend, give heed to the 
desired object, making our resolutions as definite 
and concrete as possible by the aid of the imagina- 
tion. For example as, previously noted, if inclined 
to be nervous and self-conscious in a certain social 



108 Human Efficiency 

situation I may create in imagination a picture of 
myself in precisely that situation, meeting the 
experience as I should like to meet it. The same 
method may be applied to character, to any phase 
of mental life which we wish to change in which 
there are conditions to be overcome which require 
time or a flank movement on our part. For the 
ideal picture will help us to act in the w T ay proposed. 
The mental picture or thought while not the sole 
factor is an aid to the activity which we wish to 
regulate. It is not necessary to assume the ex- 
istence of a hidden power which functions in a 
different manner in response to suggestion. 

It is no doubt true that the mind possesses 
powers of assimilation and co-ordination, as well 
as of receptivity, of which we are not aware. 
Hence we may learn to observe periods of rest and 
change with excellent results, we may give freer 
play to spontaneity, awaiting occasions and natural 
fruitions. Thus our periods, of upliftment may 
begin at less conscious moments when for various 
reasons our minds are more open. Such a period 
ensues, for example, during the drowsy moments 
before we sleep or very early in the morning 
when we are scarcely awake. In the still hours of 
the night, after the excitements of the day have 
passed, and the physical organism is less active, 
it is sometimes possible to become more profoundly 
reflective. The same is true in the early morning 



The Subconscious 109 

before the life of the senses intervenes. We then 
bring our thoughts into clearer relief, receiving 
what we pray for in more conscious fashion. Such 
a time may indeed bring us into more intimate 
communion with God; we may be far more open 
and free. But this does not prove either the exist- 
ence of higher faculties or that the subconscious 
mind is the means of communication between 
God and man, as some allege. It does not seem 
possible that those who hold this view could 
seriously have examined it. It makes us out to be 
strange creatures, as if God could find access to us 
only on the sly. Let us rather say that in our most 
highly conscious moments, in our moral decisions, 
our acts of service and worship, the divine Father 
is nearest. God is reason, truth, and to know 
Him we must be acutely aware of the right and 
the true. If we cannot find Him in our experiences 
of struggle, suffering, transition, and triumph, we 
cannot find Him anywhere. 

To say this is not to ignore the fact that there 
is an inner centre or "the spirit" in man, more 
responsive than the external process in which we 
are pursuing self-conscious ends. But the fact of 
its existence, together with the conditions known 
as childlikeness and purity of heart, is a discovery 
which we make by contrasting conscious processes. 
If we then proceed to make more of the heart, it is 
by inhibiting other tendencies, readapting our 



no Human Efficiency 

conscious life. The instant of communion of human 
and divine is if you please subconscious, or rather 
unconscious, but so is any point of contact in our 
experience. We are limited to the tendencies, 
stimulations, and incentives which rise above the 
level of union into the sphere of sentiment and 
will. 

When we are most absorbed in an experience 
which enlists all our activity we are least aware 
-of processes, hence we are thinking neither of 
faculties nor of the precise approach of the power 
that inspires. Later we may infer from what has 
taken place the factors which made its occurrence 
possible. This indeed is the only ground of infer- 
ence we have, since the stream of consciousness 
ever flows on, giving us no opportunities to inspect 
it as perceived precisely as we are perceiving it. 
Strictly speaking it is not a question of conscious 
and subconscious but of the mediate and the 
immediate. Here there is a real distinction, for 
we all know by experience the difference between 
critical thought in which we pass from item to item 
explaining facts by means of principles; and the 
exceedingly rapid process by which we directly 
apprehend ideas through intuition. In the more 
immediate processes there are fewer obstacles, 
and we like to believe that naught stands between 
the heart and God. If the immediate presence of 
God be a fact, it follows that the nature of the soul 



The Subconscious hi 

is such as to make this contiguity possible. But 
even here the immediacy which we attribute to 
our nature is devoid of meaning except through 
the thinking and the conduct by which we render 
it explicit. Moreover, if God be contiguous to 
one side of our nature is He not contiguous to all? 
Why then should we call the soul subconscious? 

It is Hudson, with his much heralded Law of 
Psychic Phenomena , who has given popularity to a 
supposed distinction between the subjective mind 
and the objective. It is said that the subjective 
mind does not start with facts and proceed induc- 
tively like the objective mind. From this conclu- 
sion it is an easy leap to the proposition that the 
subjective mind really is the soul. But where 
does this leave us poor mortals who reason, who 
hold that inductive science is steadily conquering 
the world? Shall we say that to depart from sub- 
jectivity is to withdraw from God? As matter 
of fact all we need is the above distinction wdthin 
consciousness between the immediate and the 
mediate, together with knowledge of mental 
evolution. 

We begin life on the level of instinct and emotion, 
and after a time become great believers in intuition. 
To the end we must reverence the leadership of 
woman, of the spirit or heart in us, for we can 
hardly expect to know as much as we "feel" — 
to use the vague term which sometimes means so 



ii2 Human Efficiency 

much. Nevertheless, our life, if we are really 
growing, is a progress from intuitively perceived 
wholes to explicitly known particulars. The 
intuition of to-day becomes the concretely ana- 
lysable knowledge of next year. The " eternal 
feminine' ' which ever draws us on is the ideal 
element which we steadily approach and assimilate 
only to find that it has moved forward to inspire 
us to greater attainment. The change is from the 
implicit to the explicit, from whole to part, the 
immediate to the mediate. The objective is another 
form of the same matter dealt with by a more de- 
liberate process. The soul is neither objective nor 
subjective but is the underlying being or self in 
which these processes of will and thought inhere. 
If you believe your soul is subjective and works 
by a hidden process you are likely to give up 
analysis and constructive thinking, hence you will 
drop back in the mental scale. Instead of intel- 
lectual alertness you will cultivate vague recep-- 
tivity, expecting to attract in completed form 
ideas and types of energy of a greatly superior 
sort. Accordingly, you will put off the day of 
union between reason and the heart, going in 
fruitless pursuit of a new duality. Once persuaded 
of this view of mental life it will seem perfectly 
reasonable to disparage intellectuality in favour 
of mental processes in which the mind yields 
too much, is unduly and vaguely receptive. 



The Subconscious 113 

Meanwhile, if the soul should indeed speak from 
its subjective depths would it not say, "Have I 
been so long with thee and dost thou not know 
me, O heart, O reason? Knowest thou not that 
love and intellect are the same, one in essence, 
in being, a child of the living God? Why wilt 
thou, O consciousness, run in search of strange 
gods?" 

Hard indeed for the vaguely theoretical is the 
fall to the stern fact that we have advanced no 
further than our actual conduct out here in the 
daylight makes plain. Ideas gain force and gather 
into efficient groups through the will, that is, 
through dominance of interest. The mere fact 
that one entertains a belief, or holds a thought, 
of itself signifies little. Hence one might cast 
a thousand shadowy thoughts into the dimness 
behind one's active ideas, yet find them offset 
by stronger acts of will or more fundamental 
habits. It is what is wrought into the structure 
that avails, and this means first of all a matter 
of will and habit. To make my new idea efficient I 
must actively and persistently do something on 
which I may depend. 

A conscious incentive, on the other hand, may 
have real efficacy. If I cease to think of myself 
as dual, if I break down artificial distinctions 
between subjective and objective, and rely upon 
directly conscious effort, I can indeed make head- 



ii4 Human Efficiency 

way, guided by an inspiring idea. But it is a 
question of ever-increasing consciousness, not of 
the imprisoning self-centred sort, but of the life 
of reason. Hence there is every reason to be 
confident, strong, believing in success, hoping 
for the best, since it is the affirmative attitude 
that triumphs, not the weak attitude of resignation. 
Such belief should go without saying, and it is 
not necessary to make the principles of success 
objects of special concern. What we are really 
supposed to be eager for is success itself, hence 
the more we concentrate on the end the better. 

Is there no meaning, then, in Mr. Meyers's 
suggestive hypothesis of the subliminal self? 
Certainly, but this is a different hypothesis 
arrived at in connection with an endeavour to 
explain hidden psychic phenomena. Here is an 
instance in point. A friend one day called at a 
house to see some one who lived on the second 
floor and when half-way up the stairs unexpectedly 
received this impression, "You have lost your 
watch, and if you go out to the sidewalk at once 
you will find it before any one picks it up. " This 
impression, immediately verified by my friend, 
came as if spoken in the ear by an onlooker. A 
spiritualist would at once say that a spirit noticing 
the fall of the watch told my friend. A devotee 
of purely physiological explanations would doubt- 
less say that the organism was somehow impressed 



The Subconscious 115 

by the event and conveyed this intelligence to 
consciousness as soon as opportunity occurred, 
just as we are able to recall faces or objects in a 
shop window after we have passed by and have 
merely the visual memories to depend on. Psy- 
chologically it should not seem at all strange that 
we address ourselves when receiving such informa- 
tion as came to my friend, for we often converse 
with ourselves, and descend with severe invectives 
on our lower nature. Whether or not an attendant 
spirit actually whispers words of warning, the 
significant feature of the experience is that an 
up-rush from a lower level makes us aware of 
experiences through which we have just passed 
and to which we were not paying attention. We 
infer the larger capacity of the mind from these 
its deliverances. In the same way we find our- 
selves responding to instinct, and on occasion 
pain or fear may give information concerning 
the state of the organism in such a way as to show 
that on the physical level, also, we receive impres- 
sions of importance. In the case of these prompt- 
ings in regard to physical welfare we know from 
wisely analysed experience that everything depends 
on the explanation which we attach to the given 
impression. 

No doubt the hypothesis of the subliminal phase 
of our selfhood is extremely workable in wise 
hands. The theory that our selfhood is deeper 



n6 Human Efficiency 

or larger than the field of awareness of the con- 
scious moment affords a highly satisfactory way 
of describing and explaining the common element 
in many spiritual experiences. This hypothesis 
throws light on mysticism, for example, and on all 
beliefs that start with the premise that the soul 
is in immediate relation with a higher order of 
being. What we know is not the actual contact 
of the self with higher forms of reality but the 
report that is made when the experience which 
ensues quickens us in some fashion, or reveals new 
insights. It is convenient to have a theory con- 
cerning the interior relationships which make such 
contact possible. No doubt we should cherish 
the belief that we are near heaven through these 
contacts, as well as in our moral triumphs, when 
we serve, and when we valiantly reason. But 
even granted that angels minister unto us through 
these interior channels, the first consideration 
will be the principle which enables us to discern 
ctngelic presences and to know their wisdom by its 
fruits, in contrast with lesser spirits and their 
utterances. To possess such a principle would be 
to know many things uncommonly well. That is, 
the clue would be found in consciousness, not in 
subconsciousness. 

If one should attribute superior powers to the 
subliminal portion of one's being but have no 
standard by which to judge the products of this 



The Subconscious 117 

hidden activity, one might easily open the door 
to all sorts of inner experiences, developing new 
forms of fear and bondage. But see plainly that 
the conscious attitude is the decisive factor and 
you at once realise that you have naught to fear. 
For you will not be open subliminally to any in- 
fluence which you would not consciously welcome, 
your character will be the decisive power. If 
indeed you find yourself in any way open to 
undesirable visions, presences, or utterances, your 
resource will be to deal directly with conscious- 
ness, namely, by becoming more sane, making 
sure that you have a sound mind in a healthy 
body. It would be unfortunate to entertain any 
belief regarding your subliminal life which appears 
to put it beyond your power or make out that it is 
superior. 

Our investigation is steadily proving that we 
know nothing whatever in regard to what lies 
below the threshold of consciousness except so 
far as activities emerge into consciousness. Thus 
strictly confined to experience, we may well 
undertake to know experience to the foundation. 
If we continue to believe in higher sources of im- 
pressions than our physical senses the probability 
is that we will be more and more concerned with 
the rational forms in which enlightened conscious- 
ness recasts the information thus received. In 
the case of conscience, for example, we well know 



n8 Human Efficiency 

what a transformation has taken place in our 
thought since the days of childhood. Once con- 
science was an authoritative voice heard within, 
then a feeling in regard to the right, later a moral 
sense through which we could by earnest effort 
discern the right, later still an experience which 
checked us when about to do wrong but one that 
was extremely difficult to obtain when we wished 
to know what was right. Now in our rational 
days conscience is wholly intellectual, a mode of 
reflection by which we weigh alternatives, seek 
to make a moral choice, but which still leaves 
us sufficiently in the dark so that an act of 
faith is required. We put far more emphasis 
upon knowledge of the world than upon any 
sentiment which we may arouse. To be conscien- 
tious is to be rational, self-consistent, and this 
implies an ideal of self-realisation which did not by 
any means come through feeling or even by way 
of intuition. In a similar manner we are all the 
time advancing into more explicit types of con- 
sciousness. We esteem the ability to meet new 
situations, or react on new data, above the ability 
to retain uncritical receptivity. This growth is in 
perfect keeping with an open-mindedness which 
on occasion may equal that of the child. In the 
same way we may continue to be responsive to 
those insensibly gathering convictions through 
which experience teaches us the lessons of life, 



The Subconscious 119 

just as we yield to the deepening affections which 
mean more to us as life advances. If deeply 
interested in the great issues of life we are likely 
to maintain a sort of inner reflectiveness which 
goes on almost without interruption whenever 
we are awake. This process of meditation is the 
only one really worth while, for it yields ideas, 
it advances from hour to hour. At any time 
we may expect important fruitions from this philo- 
sophic reaction, and we should not be surprised 
if we sometimes find ourselves writing or speaking 
in combinations of ideas that seem wholly new, 
even though we utter propositions which we never 
consciously acquired. These are not miraculous 
products, they need not come from an objective 
source. Say rather that they express the best 
activity of the self, less conscious in the case of 
most of us, but capable of becoming analysably 
conscious in the case of those who acutely know 
their own processes. 

Our investigation has shown us how to classify 
the facts in question in such a way as to avoid 
sundering the mind into compartments. It would 
be difficult to know where to stop if we should 
adopt the hypothesis that there is more than one 
mind. For why should we stop with the sub- 
conscious mind? Why not with as good reason 
contend that we have a superconscious mind, a 
mind that communes with heavenly realities? 



120 Human Efficiency 

Then, too, we would have as many minds as the di- 
versities of character reveal, a mind of the spirit 
and a mind of the flesh, a Dr. Jekyll and a Mr. 
Hyde. Far more intelligible is the theory that in 
our moods and contrasted states of character we are 
only displaying a part of our nature; that in the 
case of those who wander off and forget who they 
were, assuming another name, we have instances 
of split-off phases of consciousness. The moral is, 
not to make the most of our moods and split-off 
mentalities, but to unify the better into a consist- 
ent character, and permit the less desirable to 
die through lack of attention. Unification is a 
conscious process, not a subconscious, it is an act 
of will, not of surrender. 

Strictly speaking, that which has not yet entered 
consciousness is unconscious. Hence our inquiry 
leaves room for the unconscious processes, espe- 
cially of the brain, which go on even while we sleep 
and through which habits such as swimming and 
bicycle-riding become parts of our organism. 
When we awaken in the morning and find problems 
solved, written out on paper, but with no recollec- 
tion on our part that we arose in the night to write 
the solution, we may infer what has taken place by 
what we thus find as a result. In the same way we 
know that we search through the memory for 
hours in quest of a lost name, and then find it 
suddenly rising into the field of consciousness. 



The Subconscious 121 

We are all the time experiencing the benefits of 
the activities which we set in motion sometime 
before. There was motion or consciousness at the 
beginning. There is a fruition with consciousness 
at the end. The missing factors we make good by 
descriptive inferences. 

Starting with the level of the involuntary pro- 
cesses of the body, we rise to that of unconscious 
cerebration, to the less-conscious, the more-con- 
scious, and the self-conscious. Descending, we 
find that the idea which has elicited attention 
becomes a less-conscious direction of mind, then 
produces subconscious after-effects. The sub- 
conscious is not a separate mind, working by other 
laws, but is an after-effect which carries out the 
interests of consciousness; co-ordinates, reshapes, 
then displays its results when the activity in ques- 
tion again rises into consciousness. The subliminal 
is not a distinct self, but is a less-conscious phase 
of a single selfhood, too copious to be wholly 
displayed at one time. Our most direct clue is 
found, not in dependence on the subconscious as 
if it were king, but in emphasis on the play of 
thought which centres about a selected idea. I 
may indeed rely upon my subconsciousness to 
outwit habits and traits of character that are 
undesirable, but only in case I have already willed 
to separate these from the person I choose to be. 
Thus our conclusions support all methods that 



122 Human Efficiency 

have really proved efficacious by centring the in- 
terest upon the stream of thought. The significant 
feature of the relationship between the various 
levels and tendencies of consciousness is found 
rather in the sources and the goals than in the mere 
fact of being underneath or above. Consciousness, 
we have learned, is exceedingly complex, and really 
to be conscious in an active sense is an attainment. 
Let us review the important considerations. 

In this mental stream are contained all the pro- 
cesses and functions which in former days were 
attributed to faculties and powers. Thus we learn 
what we are through what we find ourselves doing. 
To-day you start out with new resolutions antici- 
pating a day of calmness during which nothing 
shall disturb your composure or render you impa- 
tient. But suddenly brought face to face with a 
new situation you are greatly disturbed, and al- 
most before you are aware you find yourself giv- 
ing voice to impatience, vexed, and disconcerted. 
Presently you regain composure and experience 
chagrin that you did not maintain your good 
resolution. By inference you know that the phase 
of your inner life which you call your lower nature 
was stronger than you thought, hence your efforts 
must be redoubled if the ideal shall triumph. The 
whole of life is such an emergence into conscious- 
ness of tendencies within the self until at last we 
have been touched on all sides. If you are wise you 



The Subconscious 123 

will not call this hateful mood yourself, but will 
deem it a half-spent phase of the being you once 
were. You wish to create yourself anew in wiser 
fashion so that the ideals of to-day shall constitute 
the habitual self of to-morrow. Thus you endeavour 
to outwit your own consciousness by giving your 
activity more resolutely to the ideal, refusing to 
own these miserable moods and emotions through 
which you betray fear, anger, jealousy, resentment, 
and the like. Really to know yourself is to know 
what tendencies are likely to emerge in the pres- 
ence of any possible situation, the worst phase of 
selfishness you are likely to display, the meanest 
sentiment, the most absurd fancy or fear, the 
shallowest intellectual reaction. To know this is 
to be primed, in part at least, to meet and to check 
all these undesirable elements of your selfhood. 
That is, you endeavour to trace the stream back 
to its source. 

This, however, is only one half the process. 
For if you would withdraw the forces of life from 
one channel you must build another, outwitting 
your unruliness by transmutation. It is matter 
of great encouragement to know that the attitude 
of mind which we calmly and confidently adopt 
to-day, while reflectively dwelling upon an ideal, 
will bring consequences in the days that succeed. 
That is, we may place great reliance on the brood- 
ing reflectiveness of which I have spoken, depend- 



124 Human Efficiency 

ing on the fact that the idea which we make part 
and parcel of ourselves will work within us even 
though we are not steadily thinking about it. 
Furthermore, we have seen that our mental life 
reveals favourable junctures, opportunities for tak- 
ing the current when it serves. These spontane- 
ous developments are as likely to put favouring 
currents within our grasp as any process which we 
consciously command. 

May we not also bexieve that this stream of 
life unceasingly coursing through us flows in part 
from the divinest source, that it contains prompt- 
ings from the divine mind and heart? For surely 
we have experiences when, instead of being 
immersed in the stream we are lifted above it, 
breaking free into the boundless atmosphere that 
rests upon us, reaching skyward. Carefully qual- 
ifying here as in the case of all that lies below the 
level of rational consciousness, we may well find 
value in the type of thought sometimes known as 
cosmic consciousness or mystic enlightenment. Our 
world-view need not be so diffused as to embrace 
the entire cosmos, nor need our super-conscious- 
ness lead to the ecstasy or trance of the Orientals. 
It is rather a question of moderate enlightenment, 
of a beatific vision dispersed along the line of 
philosophic assimilation. For who cares to enter- 
tain a vision which leaves us no whit farther on 
save that we possess a beautiful memory? 



The Subconscious 125 

Is this tampering with the secrets of life, do you 
say, and should we yield ourselves in reverent 
ecstasy? One is more inclined to say that the 
whole matter is one of control. For the spiritualist 
medium, possessing weak powers of inhibition, the 
subliminal world is of course exceedingly capacious. 
With the growth of intelligence scepticism inevi- 
tably enters, hence the realm of the occult grows 
ever smaller. The development of individuality 
as inevitably narrows the field of our overconscious- 
ness. All that was real is still with us, we have lost 
nothing. But the supernatural has ceased to 
exist, the mysterious has faded from view. Instead, 
we have just the plain human self in its integrity, 
facing the familiar landscape of daily life. The 
same stream of sensations, emotions, feelings, 
volitions, and ideas, courses through us, but 
how different it appears ! 

By saying that the whole matter is essentially 
one of control I mean that we may have more 
control of our brains, and our mental powers in 
general. A well-ordered brain, trained in directions 
that are worth while, such as skilled performance 
on a musical instrument, in public speaking, in the 
economical use of energy, means on the physical 
side freedom from any number of annoyances, 
misconceptions, and hindrances. It means the 
subsiding of sensuous processes, of most of the 
emotions, all ecstasy and impatience. It means 



126 Human Efficiency 

that more activities have been given over to well- 
acquired habits. Hence the active consciousness 
is more free to yield itself to reflective participa- 
tion in life that is worth while. 

It is no discredit, therefore, that we are chiefly 
concerned with daily interests in this natural world. 
Here within us, as we enter the activities of the 
new day, is this marvellous stream which we call 
consciousness with its vital current ever carrying 
us on, and this is the great possession. Whenever 
we know not what to do we may pause in expect- 
ant reflectiveness, giving our excitements oppor- 
tunity to subside, letting our nervous frictions 
cease, resting from the process of fearing and 
striving. There is always something in process 
that really is significant, some aspiration that has 
not lost force, some purpose that is achieving 
fulfilment. We may at least move forward with 
this process, waiting to see whither it leads. Here, 
in deepest truth, is one of the great secrets of life: 
we become, we achieve, by giving this growing 
self opportunity to become complete amidst the 
activities which are steadily developing it. Life 
itself is a developing power, even if we seldom 
think. It will do more for us if we take our clues 
from its tendencies and laws rather than from any 
theory or interest of our own. We are dealing 
with life, not with rigid forms, hence we have 
discarded the artificial distinctions which separate 



The Subconscious 127 

objective and subjective, lower and higher, the 
self above and below the threshold. Bundles of 
tendencies we surely are, creatures of habit and 
emotion, as different at times as if another person 
had gained control, so that multiple personality 
and insanity are simply exaggerations of states 
which we have all known in a measure. But the 
rational way to think is with reference to the con- 
sistent, ideal self we will to become, the self which 
life is ready to develop in us. When we have dis- 
carded the last notion of mere fixity, when we have 
pulled down the last fence of aristocratic exclusive- 
ness and given up all crystallised beliefs, we shall 
find ourselves in an attitude to enter into the full 
joys of life. Life is a stream changing from moment 
to moment even while we think and feel. What is 
real and true is real and true now, for you and me. 
If it give back to us all that we have passed 
through, so that we cannot escape the reactions of 
our own folly, it also effaces, uplifts, and trans- 
forms, each moment offering new opportunities to 
be loving, to be considerate, and to be wise. 



CHAPTER VI 

OUR ENERGIES AND THEIR CONTROL 

WE are now in a position to consider a subject 
of vital import which has been in sight 
from the first, the nature and conservation of our 
energies. The principle of efficiency, we have seen, 
tends to assume quantitative forms at first, 
through the dominance of commercial standards, 
and because of the use of methods involving the 
economical use of time. This tendency, carried to 
the extreme, would make of every man a machine 
for the production of the greatest amount of good 
work in the shortest time. To permit this ten- 
dency to rule would involve the surrender of the 
higher interests of human life, and man would 
cease to be human. Education in the larger 
sense, for example, would be impossible, since 
the aim would be to turn even the little child's 
energies into use from the first year, to permit no 
part of its life to lie fallow, to put it through all 
the disciplines as early as possible, and to intro- 
duce schedules of efficiency at every point. The 
result would be even in a single generation the 

128 



Our Energies and their Control 129 

submergence of the life of play, the imprisonment 
of spontaneity, and the eventual crushing of the 
freer life of the soul. Hence we must sound these 
matters to the end to know what is reasonable. 

Efficiency as we have regarded it in the preced- 
ing pages implies the best use of all our powers so 
far as may be consistent with the steady pursuit 
of one interest, vocation, or profession, to which 
we give ourselves for the sake of being genuinely 
practical, human. The end is self-realisation, the 
contribution of our share to the world's work, 
to the arts or the sciences. Hence self-coercive- 
ness should no more rule than the coercion of 
authority. The right to live, to express, is inalien- 
able, sacred. The human organism is an instrument 
for the realisation of this moral ideal. Mind and 
body move along together. Therefore we cannot 
expect to make satisfactory headway unless we 
take them both into full account. Control at the 
centre, mental efficiency, is the ideal and the 
means whereby moral efficiency may be secured. 

He who realises the full significance of this 
standard has already solved the problem of the 
right use of energy. But most of us need to con- 
sider the question in detail. We are either likely 
to err by making too much of the mind without 
adequate development of the body, or by ignoring 
the mind under the assumption that it is merely 
a question of physical vitality. The problem is 



130 Human Efficiency 

the more serious in our time because of attempts 
in various quarters to make the utmost of the law 
of hidden reserves, hence to draw upon the supplies 
of energy to the full. Our best approach to the 
subject is in terms of a recent discussion which 
raises the issues afresh. 

In a widely read article by Professor James on 
"The Energies of Men, " in the American Maga- 
zine, attention is called to the fact that there 
are various levels of energy, and times when the 
amount of energy available is greater, while at other 
times one appears to be cut off from the sources. 
Closely connected with these fluctuations of energy 
are the inhibitions which check our energy in many 
ways. We are restrained, for example, by literality 
and decorum, and so hedged in that we are unable 
to attain fulness of self-expression. It is plain that 
there are reservoirs of energy not habitually tapped. 
That these hidden reserves exist we know from the 
fact that at times we gain our "second wind/' 
hence we are able to press on and work even after 
becoming decidedly fatigued. Again, we accom- 
plish a great deal under excitement, or unusual cir- 
cumstances. The inference is that if we possessed 
spontaneity or self-abandonment we might fre- 
quently draw on our hidden resources. 

One would naturally infer that instead of 
yielding to fatigue and nervous exhaustion one 
should brecJk into the hidden reserves, putting 



Our Energies and their Control 131 

forth more activity instead of less, depending 
on increase of work rather than on the usual 
methods of rest and recuperation. It then becomes 
a question of ways and means. Let us, however, 
examine the matter carefully, for there is danger 
that those who do not understand the laws and 
conditions in question may overdraw their supply 
of energy by getting their second wind when rest 
is imperative. It by no means follows that, 
because some have done an exceptional amount 
of work during excitement, therefore every one 
may safely do likewise. Those who effectively 
draw on their reserves doubtless have excellent 
reserves of nervous and physical energy on which to 
draw. But there are people who have no resources. 
It is precisely because many people have drawn 
on their reserves without limit that they now find 
themselves nervous wrecks. Hence to advise 
without careful qualification would be serious. 
Take the case of a young woman who was 
nervously depleted after several years of exces- 
sive work in the musical profession, who had 
become so nervous that she could not sleep, and 
was haunted by the idea that she would never 
be able to sleep again. In obvious need of rest 
and deeper knowledge of her powers, she was 
urged to press on, but was first given a drug to 
produce sleep. The effect of the drug was to 
deaden her sensibilities, hence to remove her a 



132 Human Efficiency 

stage farther from awareness of her real physical 
and nervous condition. A little wisdom would 
have shown that she should have been brought, 
after a period of complete rest, into acquaintance 
with her actual resources. She had no reserves 
on which to draw, and was most unwise in the 
use of the little energy remaining after years of 
gradual exhaustion. To stimulate her sensibili- 
ties would have been to make the mistake so many 
fall into when, weak and exhausted, they drink 
strong coffee, and apparently possess more en- 
ergy than before. Any one who wishes to try this 
experiment will learn that in due time nature 
exacts full penalty. Sooner or later we must 
know precisely what amount of energy nature 
has put into our hands at a given time, all 
illusions due to over-stimulation having been 
overcome. 

It requires little knowledge to show that each 
must take these matters into his own hands. If I 
have been in the habit of taking long walks into 
the country, I may well take advantage of my 
" second wind" and walk five, ten, even fifteen 
miles after I am weary; since my organism, well 
trained in that sort of exercise, may not be brought 
into full activity until I have passed beyond the 
initial fatigue. The next day I may be aware of 
no ill-effects, and in a few days may be able to 
repeat the performance. So in many kinds of 



Our Energies and their Control 133 

work in which people regularly engage it may be 
possible to continue day after day turning off an 
exceptional amount of work without any undesir- 
able result. This should be true of all whose 
powers are trained to work systematically especi- 
ally those who are happy in their work. The 
normal individual ought to be able to labour a 
goodly number of hours without being made 
unpleasantly conscious of his organism. 

Yet as matters stand normal individuals are not 
numerous. The majority are compelled to give 
attention to the state of the body. Such prudence 
may, however, be a means to a higher end. The 
better we know the organism the wiser we should 
be concerning the use of the energy at hand. If we 
keep close to nature we ought to have abundant 
evidence of nature's guidance. To-day, for ex- 
ample, I may go into my study expecting to write 
as usual but instead find myself turning to the 
book-shelves and idly browsing. By the instinc- 
tive actions which thus reveal themselves I learn 
that the organism is not in full vigour and requires 
a lighter form of work. I could by sheer force of 
will go to my desk and write, but my writing would 
be of an inferior sort, and I should pay a high 
price for the product. Another day I awaken with 
zest and everything I touch turns to gold. An 
examination of my organism would show that it is 
in prime condition, hence nature does not check 



134 Human Efficiency 

my activities at any point. Do I draw on hidden 
reserves on such a day? No, I merely use the 
ordinary supply of vitality, out in the daylight of 
normal activity. 

Likewise in regard to education, everything 
depends on our knowledge of the factors which 
affect the whole individual. It needs no argument 
to show that there is enormous waste of power in 
education as ordinarily pursued, indeed human 
life as a whole is characterised by waste and ex- 
travagance. Hence to secure wiser and better de- 
veloped teachers who shall be splendid examples 
of what they teach we must begin farther back 
with the question of energy as a human problem. 
It is possible by responding to every question a 
child asks, by giving its young mind no oppor- 
tunity to lie fallow, and by encouraging curiosity 
at every point, to put the child rapidly through 
the usual processes of education. But unless due 
attention be given to each of nature's demands 
for rest, change, play, and the spontaneous life 
in general, it is easy to coerce, hence to ruin the 
child. 

Our first point is that nature is the safest guide, 
hence what is needed is profounder knowledge of 
nature's powers and their wise use. Whatever 
energy I possess and may safely use is relatively 
near the surface; its presence, character, and 
amount are indicated by nature's promptings, 



Our Energies and their Control 135 

prohibitions, and warnings, by signs which every 
one should be able to read who really understands 
his body. If able to do a great amount of brain- 
work and drive ahead of my fellows, I must already 
have a brain of large capacity and power. On 
merely general principles no one can safely draw 
upon energies that are not plainly apparent. What 
is desirable is a state of mind and body which can 
be steadily maintained through mutual adjust- 
ment between physical forces and mental powers. 

That there is enormous waste of energy in the 
human organism is a fact to be considered by itself 
before we set out in quest of hidden reserves. Only 
by more advantageously employing the energy at 
hand can we expect to conserve and organise 
that which is wasted. Ordinarily there is power 
enough, and we need not endeavour to rise to a 
higher level of energy. The men and women round 
about us who are distancing us because of their 
efficiency are patient workers who long ago settled 
down to mastery, who make good use of their 
gifts according to their capacity, depending on 
habits of interior control, that is, on the normal 
powers of man. 

Our first promising discovery is likely to relate 
to the nervous system, since it is right use of 
nervous energy which underlies mental efficiency. 
Without doubt the nervous system is capable of 
far more work than we usually get from it. As Dr. 



136 Human Efficiency 

F. S. Lee has recently said, the nervous system is 

not the frail, delicate thing easily put out of gear, 
that we at times believe it to be. It is capable of 
enormous demands on its powers and of enormous 
resistance. It is the last system to succumb in many 
diseases and in such a dire condition as starvation. 
It would seem to be only highly advantageous to the 
organism that its nervous system should be able to 
resist the oncoming of fatigue, with all the direful 
consequences that might follow its advent. Hence 
the second stage of working power may well be the 
more efficient stage, and those who know how to make 
rightful use of it may in part owe their superior 
achievements to it. On the other hand, those who 
habitually energise below their maximum may be 
victims of inferior habits. " 

Yet, whatever the real or apparent power of the 
nervous system, it is primarily a question of the 
individual who makes full use of his powers, or 
habitually behaves below his highest point of 
activity, as the case may be. To make good use of 
our powers we must engage in a work which we 
believe worth while. Granted an inspiriting ideal 
which calls the best from the self, the question is, 
Where shall one begin in the effort to master the 
energies of the organism and employ them to 
advantage? 

Whatever the degree of development, the start- 

1 Popular Science Monthly, Feb., 19 10. 



Our Energies and their Control 137 

ing-point is with the fact that we ordinarily possess 
sufficient vitality to carry us successfully through 
the day, and that if this be inadequate it is because 
there is waste of energy in our habits of work, in 
the way we eat, sleep, take recreation and exer- 
cise. Shall we first increase the supply of energy 
by lying fallow, waiting for power to come where- 
with to control what is already in exercise? This 
may be necessary if we are nervously exhausted, 
but under other conditions it would be like waiting 
to become unselfish before we begin to do good in 
the world. The use of energy is learned through 
action, for actual use ought to show wherein we 
may wisely accelerate our speed, increase emphasis, 
or slacken our pace and lessen the intensity. We 
may infer from the fact that we have enjoyed a 
restful sleep that there was appropriate responsive- 
ness to nature, whereas to awaken fatigued is to 
learn that nervous tension has gone before. Again, 
we learn by catching ourselves in the act of rush- 
ing, by slackening speed then and there, moderately 
and advantageously using the energy which other- 
wise would have run riot. A new joy comes into 
life with the growth of equanimity, and with this 
joy an impetus towards still more fruitful action. 
Success really comes through concentration on a 
single mode of activity at a time, since a merely 
general advance counts for little. To master one 
habit, preferably the one involved in the most 



138 Human Efficiency 

wasteful form of activity, is to acquire power that 
can be brought into play in other directions. 

Every one is supposed to know that if we work 
while we work, and rest while we rest, making an 
art of it, we enjoy the most beneficial results. If 
we have serious problems in mind, we know how 
important it is to dismiss them when we lie down 
for the night, while we eat, and when we take our 
daily exercise. If we would think to advantage we 
know the value of quiet solitude, corrected by sub- 
sequent contact with our fellows. By living in the 
present in contrast with the anxiously anticipated 
future, or the regretted past, we gain many of the 
advantages of concentration. We know, too, the 
importance of observing regular times and seasons 
for work, rest, and recreation, including the summer 
in the country and the occasional year's change in 
the form of work. To observe the regularity that 
aids without enslaving, every one finds it necessary 
to cut off social engagements here and there, keep 
good hours, and find a form of exercise that really 
brings refreshment. 

In contrast with the well-ordered life, it is 
interesting to note what strenuous exertions are 
put forth by some people to have what is called 
"a good time." Observe the average family, for 
instance, on its way to and from a day's excursion 
into the country by boat or rail, and note all the 
preparations that are required, the hardships that 



Our Energies and their Control 139 

are encountered in crowds, waiting for cars, stand- 
ing in line — to say nothing of the supposed joys of 
the actual picnic — and you will realise that it is not 
a question of saving energy with these people, for 
they probably spend more than usual. If any 
benefit comes from these laborious trips to the coun- 
try, it is due to change not to what is called rest. 
The same is true of most of our entertainments 
and amusements, particularly those that wear upon 
the emotions, or keep us out late at night. 

In the case of the inner activities that exhaust 
and annoy us, for instance, impatience, it is of 
little avail to tamper with external modes of 
conduct, if no change has been made at the centre. 
Begin rather by considering the constituents of 
patience. See what changes should come about in 
your bodily and nervous systems. Note that when 
you sleep well, keep good hours, it is easier for you 
to be patient. More important still, start several 
stages farther back by beginning to be more toler- 
ant of your fellows; be willing to let others take 
their own pace; adapt yourself to various sorts of 
inconveniences when travelling; see the amusing 
side of different kinds of beds and the like. Once 
embarked in such an investigation, you will not 
only save a deal of energy from day to day — energy 
usually spent in complaint and expressions of 
annoyance — but will be surprised to find how well 
adapted the world is to such a person as yourself. 



140 Human Efficiency 

In every well-ordered life there is a saving grace 
of some sort. 

I once sat near a speaker who was addressing an 
open-air gathering in the summer-time, and I 
noticed that during forty-five minutes he did not 
once change the position of his feet, did not raise 
his arms to gesticulate, and did not raise his voice. 
As one would expect, this speaker chose his words 
with great care, permitted no sentence to escape 
from his lips that was not well ordered, in entire 
keeping with his thought. One saw that here was a 
man of wide information, who knew a fact from a 
theory, and who used his powers to capital advan- 
tage. Now we might not always prefer so deliber- 
ate and precise a speaker, so accustomed are we 
to impassioned utterance, but we would like to 
see every speaker thus able to think and speak 
deliberately. 

If able to command sufficient repose to analyse 
a subject carefully, discerning its parts, arranging 
them in order, singling out essential points and 
formulating laws, you have already made several 
attainments in this direction. Such control implies 
the ability to adopt a point of view and follow it 
logically to its conclusions, and this implies com- 
mand of the brain. It also involves the mechanism 
that secures external order and system, insures 
confidence, and enables one to strike out and 
reach a goal. But this efficiency is the fruition 



Our Energies and their Control 141 

of continued effort in a clearly defined direction 
and is never the result of mere growth at random. 

It is not the quietude which we are born with 
that avails, not that of mere silence, or an atti- 
tude assumed for the occasion. Nor is it a question 
of adjustment to a higher level of energy attained 
through momentary receptivity or prayer. To 
hold still for a time, to be calm at the centre, is to 
adopt a means to the end, but the desideratum is 
a state of composure that has become habitual. 
This end is not attained through meditation alone, 
but through repeated effort and victory in actual 
work in the world. The silent pauses between 
hours of activity are necessary, and without them 
we could hardly observe the play of energies suffi- 
ciently to discover the frictions, tensions, and 
emotional excesses. But to penetrate behind the 
disturbed centres to the inmost causes is to become 
acquainted with laws and acquire a knowledge that 
gives strength and stability. He who has faced his 
nervousness and his frictions must later face his 
selfishness, and there are nervous activities within 
us that can neither be stilled nor checked but must 
be lifted up and put to wiser use. 

Some people show in a few minutes* conversa- 
tion why they have become neurasthenics. That 
is, they speak with enormous waste of energy, 
using their powers like the person who does three 
days' work in one and then rests for three days to 



142 Human Efficiency 

recover from the excess. To catch oneself in the 
act of forging ahead is to realise what a whirl- 
wind of excitement is ordinarily taking place 
within, what tensions, frictions, and strains still 
remain to be overcome. One can hardly learn 
precisely what is taking place without at the same 
time seeing what should be done. Catching oneself 
in the act, one is able to trace effects to causes. 
Hence one sees at what point the organism must 
be cared for in a wiser way, just where the centres 
of nervous activity must be overcome. But all 
this calls for more self-knowledge and composure 
as the basis for control of the organism. This in 
turn demands a simpler life, with more time for 
reflection. Thus the inquiry ever leads back to the 
same point. 

Since the results are perfect expressions of the 
causes, one ought to be able to judge so accurately 
by the signs as to know when one is reaching the 
limit of energy, when to push on and work. At 
one time it may be wise to follow lines of least 
resistance, to take the easy course ; but on occasion 
our course unmistakably lies straight through the 
greatest obstacle. Certain of our new resolves 
must be acted on immediately, otherwise we lose 
the benefit of the new impetus; yet there are 
ideals which we must steadily hold before the 
mind for years, since the time for their realisation 
is not within our power to decide. 



Our Energies and their Control 143 

One must learn from experience when to move 
with the incoming tide, when it is best to wait, or be 
aggressive. A part of every successful life con- 
sists in watching the trend of events to see when to 
join in. The more wisely observant and reflective 
the more likely we are to spare ourselves the enor- 
mous expenditures of energy of those who struggle 
against the tide, the more frequently we may 
discover favourable occasions. Thus, taking our 
clues from nature's ebbings and flowings, we may 
let our heads save our heels in many a new way, 
steadily exercising finer powers of interior control. 
We may already have learned to conserve our 
forces by eating pure and simple food, making the 
appropriate changes in diet at wise junctures, but 
now we may be able to advance by eating more 
moderately or by depending on a smaller quantity. 
Thus there may be gradual evolution through 
the acquisition of wise habits, while these in turn 
make it possible to give one's consciousness more 
fully to matters that require active thought. 

We hardly need to remind ourselves that energy 
is saved in a well-ordered household or office, 
where closets, desks, and shelves are in order, and 
each person knows precisely where the utensils 
are to be found which pertain to his organic service. 
It is always possible to introduce improvements 
even where an admirable system prevails, especi- 
ally since the system itself may in time become a 



144 Human Efficiency 

hindrance. External order at its best means con- 
trol and system within a brain that more and more 
effectively serves a well-ordered mind. Possibili- 
ties open before us without limit when the subject 
really engages our attention. The crucial question 
is, Have we found a central clue? Are we making 
changes in food, methods of work, exercise, and 
the like, at random or with a definite principle in 
mind? 

Nature moves forward in measured rhythms and 
cycles, and the wise man learns to accord his con- 
duct with nature, acquiring the rhythms which 
pertain to his type of work, his temperament, and 
the conditions under which he lives. He does not 
try to change but to build on nature, letting art 
grow out of life. Nor does he undertake to change 
his disposition or acquire control except where 
his knowledge shows such control or change to be 
feasible. He is not primarily a reformer, and is 
not seeking to make others like himself; he sees 
the importance of taking the world as it really is, 
meanwhile contributing his quota of life and 
knowledge. 

Just as a man may learn from the promptings 
of his physical nature when to push forward, when 
not, so he may learn from the spontaneous play 
of the mind. The usual habit of thought is to 
employ the brain to the full in downright thinking, 
and oftentimes this is the best way. But capital 



Our Energies and their Control 145 

results sometimes come from observing the gradual 
growth of ideas, taking the clues for active thought 
from the spontaneous fruitions of ideas that have 
matured in their own time. Experience produces 
intellectual deposits in us that surpass many of 
our self-conscious attainments. Out from the re- 
cesses of the mind come ideas that have gathered 
in new groupings round a central conception. The 
illuminating clues that suddenly flash into con- 
sciousness may save us far more time and strength 
in the long run than the mere economy of physical 
and nervous energy. The significant considera- 
tion in such a case is not the hidden mental process 
but the fruition or idea which affords a clue for 
action. 

If by brooding over a plan I am intuitively able 
to discern the right clue, I shall then be able to 
step forth into the arena of action prepared to suc- 
ceed at every turn. The best way to save energy 
may be to avoid using it until I know whither to 
proceed, since it may be better to experiment in 
the world of thought than in the sphere of action. 
When I discern the clue emerging from my deeper 
selfhood into the clear light of consciousness I may 
open wide the gates of the will, abandoning myself 
to action without much thought of the way in 
which I am using my energies. 

In other words, much power is wasted in antici- 
pation, in the effort to work ourselves into enthusi- 



146 Human Efficiency 

astic self-expression and loyalty before a sufficient 
incentive has come. This is like trying to love 
on general principles, because we think we ought. 
Again, it is like the effort to quiet our doubts, 
whereas the only way to be rid of a doubt is to see 
it through. It is well to give the spontaneous 
processes full opportunity to produce fruitions. 
Our deepest convictions develop by a law of their 
own. Love comes in its fulness when there is some 
one to call it out. Time settles many things which 
no exertion on our part can hasten. He truly 
saves energy who takes the course that life takes, 
biding his time, ready to respond to the best that 
the hour offers. 

It is plainly of more consequence to know what 
interests and incentives satisfactorily set our ener- 
gies free than to observe our movements in order 
to know when to slacken speed. Enthusiasm, for 
example, frees our powers and carries us far on the 
road to accomplishment, yet unless counterbal- 
anced it quickly peters out or runs into emotional 
excess. What one desires is enthusiasm guided by 
and aiding a purpose, and continuing along the 
line of action. Nothing enables us to employ our 
energies to better advantage than work to which 
we can give hearty support, making as little as 
possible of its imperfections and dwelling on the 
ideal for which it stands. On the other hand, 
nothing wastes our energy more quickly than 



Our Energies and their Control 147 

misplaced, superficial, and disturbing emotions. 
Anger, fear, hatred, jealousy, for example, exhaust 
the energy with amazing rapidity. The same is 
true of ecstasy in all its forms, and of any excite- 
ment that is intimately related to nervous activi- 
ties and greatly heightened sensibilities. The 
avoidance of emotional excess is one of the secrets 
of success in the right use of energies. Those who 
seek their second wind on enthusiasm will pay 
a high price for the sudden spurt. This is true 
despite the other truth on which Emerson and 
others have insisted, that nothing great was 
ever achieved without enthusiasm. 

The real problem with many of us, as Professor 
James points out, is the removal of repressions 
and inhibitions. If I possess a purpose in life I 
should be able to yield my powers to the full in 
accordance with my vocation, hence find freedom 
through exercise. This is the positive method, 
whereas to examine my nature with a view to the 
discovery of all tensions and repressions would be 
an endless undertaking, involving much unpleasant 
self-consciousness. If subject to dogmas, habits 
that impede free action, personalities that enslave, 
I must indeed examine myself. But if subject 
to repressions dating back to childhood I am 
most likely to become free by giving expression 
to the element of play, to activities which tend 
to overcome habits of over-seriousness. If reticent, 



148 Human Efficiency 

secretive, or distrustful, the resource is once more 
free self-expression. To open wide the gates for a 
time will be to discover in due course how to 
utilise the energy thus set free. Strictly speaking, 
we have always used the power in question, for 
inhibition requires energy; but the structure was 
rigid and energy was lost in impeded endeavour to 
be free while under restraint on every side. 

Life is in general a progressive quest for more 
satisfactory forms of expression. The forces that 
are within us inevitably spend their activities in 
some fashion. Our part is to aid in providing 
channels that correspond with our interior growth, 
taking our clues in part from the restlessness which 
appears in new forms as time goes on. Half the 
problem is to know what the difficulty is, why we 
are dissatisfied. The life that is stirring within 
us will reveal its own needs if we observe it at the 
point of inward striving, and once more yield 
ourselves to the spontaneous play. The prompt- 
ing of the moment, or the compelling idea, is often 
far more serviceable as a clue than the consciously 
chosen plan. If I write to-day, for example, on the 
subject that fills my mind I shall probably write 
better than on the topic I settled upon last night 
and sought to give myself so fully to this morning. 
That is to say, the creative life within me seeks 
channels of its own, and indicates when it is 
ready to produce in a given direction. Conse- 



Our Energies and their Control 149 

quently, I take my clue once more from nature. 
To go counter to my inner prompting would be to 
exercise my will against an economical energising 
of my being. Wisdom in the use of energy implies 
in this case full co-operation. On the physical 
side, there is less friction, more harmonious action, 
less fatigue, a better state generally. 

There is one situation, however, in which people 
seldom realise their own need, that is, when they 
have weighed alternatives so long that they have 
lost the power of initiative. To study inner states 
when one is in such a condition might be to become 
more and more enveloped in self-conscious consider- 
ations. What some of us need is a mental upheaval 
sufficient to upset nicely-balanced arguments and 
plunge us into a definite line of action. There are 
occasions when by a sheer act of will we must 
break through the line of self -consciousness and do 
something courageous that will bring about a 
vigorous reaction. Conscience not only makes 
cowards of us but represses energy which should 
be in free play. Simply to put ourselves in motion 
in some direction is the great need of the extremely 
conscientious. When the repressed energies are 
once more in exercise it will be time to consider 
what use to make of them. 

If there be a time when it is justifiable to influ- 
ence another it is when the "New England con- 
science* ' has brought about a deadened condition. 



150 Human Efficiency 

There is more hope for the sinner than for the 
victim of this benumbing introspection. In another 
sense this is sin, sin against life, that marvellous 
power which demands far more than mere serious- 
ness from us. The more seriously we tend to take 
ourselves and our inner states the more reason for 
an off-setting life of play and new ventures. Really 
to know and possess a quality is to be able to lay 
it aside. In those who have great powers of self- 
control and obedience, you will also find great 
powers of relaxation and abandonment. The great 
saint could have been the great sinner. 

When all has been said that need be said to those 
who require rest and recuperative change it is 
probably true of most of us, whether ill or healthy, 
that we need more incentives, more outlets for 
our energy. This is true at any rate in so far as 
we are uneasy, self-centred, dissatisfied. Hence 
to be put to work is the best medicine in a great 
number of cases, put to work at tasks that compel 
us to make exertion for ourselves, or make us 
objective, outgoing. To wait in receptivity 
might be to wait for months or years. What is 
imperative is an incentive which will enable us 
to throw off the weight of depression or habit, 
transcend the dull present, ride over obstacles, 
assume responsibility once more. 

If we watch ourselves long at a time we are 
likely to become enveloped in processes instead 



Our Energies and their Control 151 

of concentrating on ends. It is not a question of 
negative considerations, of what we do not know, 
but of what can be accomplished. Hence one 
needs to look squarely at one's total situation in 
life acknowledging whatever is rampant yet by 
no means neglecting the ideal element. No mere 
drifting down the stream of time suffices at this 
point. No secret knowledge of inner springs of 
action will carry us through. It is rather a ques- 
tion of work and increased efficiency acquired 
through work, of the more important social adjust- 
ments, the problems of self-will; and the courageous 
ventures that involve willingness to meet any 
consequences for the sake of the right and the true. 

At this point our inquiry becomes essentially 
moral. Character avails above the energy or the 
way it is employed. One would like to know how 
to quicken in men the moral fire that sets them in 
motion, brings them more profoundly to judgment. 
Given the moral impetus a way through the mazes 
of self-consciousness would be found, the energies 
would be brought into unity, and good deeds would 
follow. What is needed is the vitalising idea. If 
by some secret process one could discover hidden 
reservoirs of moral power within the selfhood of 
man, we might indeed work wonders. 

A step towards the solution of this deeper pro- 
blem is found when we understand the relationship 
between idea and energy. By the term " energy" 



152 Human Efficiency 

one means nervous and physical force. The im- 
portant characteristic of such force is that it is 
exhausted by use, the notable instance being that of 
the exhaustion caused by such emotions as anger, 
or the insidious depletion resulting from anxiety 
and nervous intensity. The problem is not 
merely that of inhibiting the interior frictions that 
exhaust our forces, but the development and 
maintenance of conditions which shall render such 
wear and tear impossible. The economy of energy 
implies the existence of power capable of acquiring 
control. Hence the deeper question is, What is the 
self with its moral and spiritual life, its powers of 
inhibition and concentration, and what are the 
resources at its command? 

When we pass from the level of physical and 
nervous forces to that of the intellectual life do we 
still find that energy is exhausted? Certainly, 
in so far as an idea has a psychophysical basis, 
takes expression through the will and influences 
conduct. In the processes of calm reflection there 
may be the least expenditure of energy. Hence the 
prevalence of states of calmly reflective activity 
is likely to lead to the development of a centre 
of inward repose, and this in turn may become a 
basis for further control. It is not of course a 
question of avoiding all expenditure of energy, 
for, as we have seen, there is ordinarily a sufficient 
amount to carry us successfully through the day. 



Our Energies and their Control 153 

But the question of efficiency in the use of energy- 
has now become one of choice of efficient interior 
states. 

Another question must be answered before we 
proceed. Is an idea in the form of an affirmation 
dynamic in character? Is it possible by diligent 
reiteration to establish a formula in the mind so 
that it will attract favourable conditions and bring 
about physiological changes? Many believe so, 
hence they turn their whole attention to the fixa- 
tion of appropriate thoughts, with the view of 
acquiring power. The assumption is that when the 
right combination of thoughts is discovered ener- 
gies will be set free that will do the work, through 
the co-operation of the subconscious mind. 

Our study of subconsciousness led us to the con- 
clusion that the decisive factors are not below 
but above the threshold of consciousness, as in the 
case of the man who cared more to give up than to 
retain the habits of smoking and drinking. It is 
the will that is dynamic, aided by imagination and 
idea. Consciously acquired control of energy 
through wise use of the will is the vital considera- 
tion. For it is only now and then that an idea, out 
of the multitude that course through the mind, 
leads to active accomplishment. Our thoughts 
are often like pictures seen on a wall or in a book. 
If a picture sets us on fire, the reason is found in 
the response of the will, in the absence of inhibitory 



154 Human Efficiency 

lines of conduct. Not all ideas are motor-ideas, 
but what we desire, love, will to attain, may well 
become the goal of quickly resulting action. The 
adoption of a favourable idea does not absolve 
us from the necessity of work, any more than the 
acceptance of a creed makes a man a Christian. 

Yet the idea is a necessary factor and in many 
instances the starting-point. Reflect until you 
discover an idea that appeals to you and the sub- 
sequent activities may be easy indeed. The deci- 
sive consideration is, What leads us to issue the 
fiat or command? For love is the man, and when 
man sees an idea that appeals to his heart he will 
act on it with avidity. 

Investigation shows that our volitional activi- 
ties are much nearer the processes that find expres- 
sion in the body than are the processes of thought, 
hence we should expect to find that the amount of 
energy employed is greater. It is well known that 
acts of will involve effort, and that hesitancy of 
will is exhausting. He who has made up his mind 
is in a position to act with effect. Hence we arrive 
at the conclusion that the wisest use of our ener- 
gies is likely to result from a life regulated by 
reason. Here indeed is a power which while differ- 
ing from bodily energy is of the nature of a higher 
level of activity. The moral therefore is, train 
your powers through systematic study of real 
life, through the acquisition of knowledge which 



Our Energies and their Control 155 

shows what is worth while ; acquire facts and mas- 
ter the laws of nature; meet life philosophically 
that you may really meet it to advantage. What- 
ever powers of control we possess may then be 
brought into exercise. 

Are we able as finite beings to break through the 
inertia of our selfhood and rouse the will to action? 
Whence come the highest incentives that ever 
actuate men and women? To answer these ques- 
tions we must consider the deeper problem more 
or less in sight throughout our discussion, What 
are our powers ultimately? Whence comes the life 
by which we gain control over physical, nervous, 
and mental powers, ascending from the level of 
mere energy to that of inward peace and spiritual 
composure? Surely we cannot expect to solve our 
problem without taking into account the deepen- 
ing and quickening experiences which transform 
us from creatures of distrust and worriment into 
beings of faith and hope, conferring on us the 
priceless gifts of the Spirit. The whole situation 
changes when we view it in this light. 

Starting at the highest conceivable centre of 
the cosmos, it is reasonable to assume that the 
divine life is without friction, or misspent energy. 
Knowledge of human suffering there may be, 
also sympathy, love of a constant type, proceeding 
forth in creative efficiency. If the creative power, 
going forth in progressive expression, encounters 



156 Human Efficiency 

no obstacle, it undoubtedly moves onward without 
exhaustion. We think of the peace ' l which passeth 
all understanding' ' as descending into us so as to 
allay fear and other inner disturbances. Such 
obstacles as the divine peace encounters on our 
part we seek to remove by attaining ideal respon- 
siveness. Perfect accordance with the divine will 
would be a union without friction, including 
obedience, the acceptance of responsibility, and 
the simplification of life so that the customary 
incentives would be reduced to the leadings and 
insights which this union would arouse. Consider 
what a world of tribulations and annoyances would 
cease to exist, how greatly human conduct would 
be changed. 

No doubt the real secret of a life that stands out 
above others is found here, in responsiveness to the 
divine will, in fidelity to the call of genius, how- 
ever we may phrase the matter. If unable to 
detect the initial leadings and responses, we are at 
least aware of the soul's endeavours to be true to 
these promptings, the struggles that ensue in the 
effort to bring all interior powers into line, the con- 
tests with the flesh, the temptations of the world. 
We do not begrudge the effort spent in training 
the powers of mind and heart to bring them into 
adaptation. Every soul passes through moral and 
spiritual conflicts, but the power to meet them is 
commonly admitted to come from a higher source 



Our Energies and their Control 157 

than one to which the term " energy' ' rightfully 
applies. These are, if you please, non-spatial con- 
flicts, they take place in the " intelligible world," 
extending through the soul's life-time here, yet 
pertaining more to the eternal values than to the 
realm of hours and years. 

Exhaustion of energy obviously begins when, 
encountering the conditions of natural existence, 
we seek to realise the visions of the soul. One 
would fain spend days at a time in creative labour 
but the imperatives of natural existence intervene. 
One would like to work " without pay and without 
price," but it is necessary in this mundane realm 
to seek dollars and cents. Thus the ideal is in 
sharp contrast with the natural, as sharp as in the 
ancient days when Plato made his classic descrip- 
tion. To be dedicated to an ideal is to give con- 
stant thought to the besetting conditions which 
limit our tasks. The joy of it is found in the abound- 
ing life that accompanies the ideal consciousness. 
Not to be measured in terms of foot-pounds, or 
with reference to the specific energies of the nervous 
system, this life wells into operation with absorb- 
ing might. While under its sway no man can give 
heed to its processes but only to its results and the 
goals it has in view. The more obediently and 
joyfully a man yields himself to its rhythms the 
less he cares for the ordinary round of social events 
with its whirling excitements, its restless pursuit 



158 Human Efficiency 

of something new, its wearying endeavours to fill 
the hour and fight off ennui. Hence the ideal life 
appears to be one in which there is a large measure 
of repose at the centre, a repose inspired by secure 
possession of the eternal values. 

To trace all the results of inward repose would 
be to find its power gradually extending into the 
secondary activities of life, lessening the friction, 
hence increasing the general efficiency. The serene 
centre would then be the basis of the greatest work 
achieved by the individual, for the real might of 
the self is spiritual, and only with the power that 
does not wear out can one conquer the energy 
which is exhausted by use. It is economy of energy 
to employ spiritual power when we can, to think 
from the centre outward, moving with the highest 
prompting we find there. 

When does friction begin? When we encounter 
our lower selfhood, meet the opposition of the flesh 
and the inertia of the will. How shall we encounter 
this resistance more effectively than by gaining the 
knowledge for which I am here pleading, especially 
by increasing the spiritual consciousness which 
sets us free? One word of power at this crucial 
centre possesses incalculable influence over us. 
The rest of life is a training and preparation for 
this. It is not necessary to seek secret springs of 
energy if we have found the source of power. None 
of the matters under consideration in our inquiry 



Our Energies and their Control 159 

can be settled without thus tracing them to the 
fountain-head, considering them in the light of our 
attitude with respect to moral and spiritual ideals. 
However far off the moral ideal may appear to be, 
we may at least cultivate the attitude most likely to 
draw into our souls the sweet peace of the Spirit, the 
divine fire that stirs our hearts to effective service. ■ 
It is indeed true that ordinarily we fail to use 
our energies to advantage, but the prime reason 
is found not in mere waste of force, as serious as 
that may be, but in imperfect adaptation to the 
powers that conquer. We have found that the 
two lines of development which lead most directly 
to the goal are psychological and spiritual. We 
need to grow in knowledge of life through systematic 
training of our energies and powers, and we need 
to grow in the consciousness which becomes 
dynamic through moral and religious incentives. 
Man's part is to organise his energies, co-ordinate 
his powers, become efficient, productive, creative. 
The more deeply consecrated the less thought will 
he be compelled to give to mere processes ; for the 
very nature of moral efficiency is to make a man 
strong, prudent, capable of putting in strokes that 
tell, conservative of his energies in the best sense 
yet lavish of them when worthy occasions call them 
forth. 

1 1 have tried to make this attitude clear in various earlier 
volumes, especially The Power of Silence, and Living by the Spirit. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE NATURE OF HUMAN WORK 

THE scope of efficiency has steadily widened 
as our investigation has proceeded. At 
first it appeared to be an essentially quantitative 
principle, relating to manual, industrial, and com- 
mercial matters solely. Yet from the first we saw 
that it involved co-operation between the manual 
labourer, the foreman, the teacher; and all who 
plan, manage, or take the lead, therefore co-opera- 
tion between head and hand. Even the question 
of industrial efficiency ran over into the inner life, 
hence was seen to involve mental, moral, and other 
issues of a qualitative sort. Efficiency regarded 
as the art of adaptation to the economic conditions 
of the day implies the art of life, adaptation to 
nature, and the conditions in general which per- 
tain to human efficiency. Industrial efficiency 
cannot be regarded as a mere question of time, 
together with the economies of production and 
distribution which grow out of it, but must include 
the economy of nervous and physical energy. If 
the "rule of the thumb' ' can no longer be followed 

1 60 



The Nature of Human Work 161 

in the mechanic arts, surely it cannot be in the 
world of physical powers and mental activities. 

Furthermore, we have been led to take account 
of differences in cerebral capacity, in the skill or 
training which separates a first-class workman from 
an average labourer, in physical strength, in nerve- 
power, and the variations which the vocations 
introduce into these factors. There is a tendency, 
we have seen, to keep the work of execution dis- 
tinct from that of planning, yet a tendency to 
draw all kinds of work more closely together, since 
the same scientific principles can be applied to all 
that belongs within the world of affairs. Back of 
all types of work is the desire to attain human 
satisfaction. The broad-minded disciple of effi- 
ciency wishes to live and let live, to achieve the 
type. Hence for him there is an ideal of mental co- 
ordination which involves choice between the de- 
sires, emotions, ideas, and other mental tendencies 
which characterise the world within. The ideal is, 
to get in motion in a desirable direction, by enlist- 
ing the imagination, through the right use of sub- 
consciousness, and by progressive thinking; and 
then to adapt one's conduct from time to time 
according to changing conditions. A man's voca- 
tion or daily work is thus part of his life as a whole. 
His life may indeed be shaped by his work. But 
we are assuming that every man is doing his best 
to understand and meet the larger issues of life of 



1 62 Human Efficiency 

which his work is merely a part. Many economic 
and other theories are founded on interpretations 
of human work. Our plea is that the nature of 
work should be seen apart from the doctrine by 
which it is ordinarily condemned or praised, un- 
heard. 

In very many quarters work has long been in 
such serious disrepute that a new champion renders 
himself open to attack at the very mention of the 
word. Aside from the primal curse, it has been 
burdened with stigmas heaped upon it by the 
aristocrat, and identified with everything from 
which man sought to escape. The rich have been 
deemed fortunate because free from it, while the 
poor have pictured the heaven that would be theirs 
could they cease to labour. Meanwhile, the poets 
have sung of the dignity of labour, and the essay- 
ists have bidden men work with a will that they 
might reap all moral benefits. It is time to regard 
the matter in more psychological terms, and in 
the light of all the considerations which we have 
urged in the foregoing chapters. 

Certain characteristics of work are so obvious as 
to require only a mere reference. Necessity makes 
it a master, and habit renders it an end in itself. 
To get a piece of work done, a man will sacrifice 
even his health, mayhap his family, and become a 
mere machine. Yet to concentrate on a piece of 
work until it is finished is under normal conditions 



The Nature of Human Work 163 

the glory of man. Any number of conditions con- 
spire to put us out of sight of its real values long 
before it can become a joy, just as people who have 
always dwelt in the slums are deprived of the 
pleasures of life in the country which they have 
never seen. So many wage-earners know it only as 
a grind that he who bespeaks its beauties and de- 
lights is quickly scorned, as if he could never have 
anything reasonable to say. Others are steadily 
nagged that they may w r ork more, or bribed 
that the utmost may be gained from their toil. 
When a man works because he loves his occupation, 
few onlookers catch his spirit, and he is supposed 
to be misguided. Yet there are those who are 
born with such a love of work that this zest could 
alone give them happiness under almost any con- 
ditions. Officious observers intervene and mar 
what might have been a good piece of work, because 
the theorist forsooth thinks he knows better than 
the toiler how the work should be done. Never- 
theless, it is not necessarily the child of tradition 
who knows how to work best, since a scientifically 
trained person may enter the lists and outdistance 
those who have learned by doing. Work is so 
often identified with manual labour, that a larger 
view is practically impossible. Hence some of the 
noblest workers of the world are disparaged. 
Meanwhile, they work incessantly who really stir 
the world. 



1 64 Human Efficiency 

To understand work one must begin with the 
nature of man. The primal curse is of course a 
myth. Work is founded in the nature of things, 
and all life's joys and blessings belong with it. It 
was not work but idleness that was cursed, to- 
gether with mere self-assertion. The moral cos- 
mos is grounded in work, and without work there is 
neither growth nor attainment. Work is necessary 
because nothing genuine is fostered except through 
contrast, opposition, and the occasion that makes 
the man. Man is essentially an active being, and 
through self -activity he attains the keenest satis- 
faction. From infancy upwards he reaches out 
in ambitious self-expression, ever striving to 
overcome obstacles and to create. If he lapse into 
inactivity it is because he departs from his normal 
selfhood, seriously misled. Every man was created 
to add his quota to the world, and to win by his own 
exertions that which suffices to keep him in exis- 
tence. If he shirks he must pay a large penalty, 
and be deprived of manifold blessings. This is as 
true of the self-centred and the neurasthenic as of 
those whom everybody classifies as degenerate. 

Many people have the notion that it is what a 
man is born with that makes life worth while. 
Hence they lay stress on inherited fortunes, on 
intellectual and spiritual gifts ; hence they celebrate 
innocence, untested intuition, whatever is elemen- 
tal or vaguely universal. But to him alone who 



The Nature of Human Work 165 

overcometh is more given. What I am born with 
may soon slip from my fingers unless I do something 
to deserve it and render it secure. Appreciation 
is a product of toil, and to evaluate I must make a 
thing my own. Riches may be heaped upon me, 
but I really possess only what I have won. No 
one can make me a gift out of relation to my 
character, no one can really coerce me, whatever 
appearances may say. What becomes mine I 
react upon and assimilate by degrees. 

It is natural to man to go forth into productivity 
in response to a creative instinct. This self- 
activity once in exercise, there is opportunity to 
observe it to see whither it is tending and thereby 
discover its implied ideal. Mere activity, that is, 
the mere expression of elemental power counts 
for little. But a man must express his powers 
before he can select and organise them. One may 
put life into the most trivial expression and trans- 
figure it by the nobility of his motive. The man 
who seeks pleasure or happiness as an end in itself 
inevitably fails, but the worker who puts himself 
into his occupation finds that happiness is bene- 
ficently added. If there be pent-up life within 
me I should not expect to be at peace until I find 
a satisfactory channel for its expression. Half 
the misery of certain classes of people is due to 
uneasiness which demands release through work. 
Nature refuses not only to give us something for 



166 Human Efficiency 

nothing but to let us pay half-price. But what joy 
ensues when a man gives himself in full zest to the 
work which his hands find to do ! 

Discover an end that is worth pursuing in life, 
such as truth, beauty, goodness, let love for human- 
ity fill your heart, and you will find it almost im- 
possible to keep from working, scarcely aware that 
what you are doing is work. The most joyous 
worker is he who has a purpose in life, and work 
falls into its rightful place when there is an ade- 
quate end in view. Work as a fragmentary being 
upon fragments and you should not expect to 
experience the satisfactions of labour. But relate 
the present activity with the world's work and you 
shall be lifted into a region of contagious joy. 
Hence work to be its best requires an ideal environ- 
ment which lifts me out of the servile present. 
Granted this, it is of secondary consequence what 
branch of my work I am just now engaged in. 
The moment's task well done will lead to a better. 
Thus work done in an ideal spirit is gloriously 
cumulative. 

Work as such of course never demeans any one. 
The person who deems himself too delectable to ' 
engage in the common tasks is unworthy of the 
fruits of human toil. Work levels class-distinc- 
tions and welds humanity into a democratic whole. 
Few joys are greater than that of doing things in 
consort with our fellows — in doing things that need 



The Nature of Human Work 167 

to be done. Hence a part of the art of work con- 
sists in securing a group to perform it with a will. 
Those who work hard when they play might well 
turn about and introduce team-play into what 
they call hard work. In play we are thinking of 
other ends. The work that becomes burdensome 
is permitted to be so because we descend to the 
level of mere routine. 

Work in itself is seldom an injury. Its burdens 
are due to other causes — to unequal social condi- 
tions, undue emphasis on money, to the encroach- 
ments of luxury, and to the false aristocracies of the 
world. As much energy is required to keep from 
work as to labour. The energy spent in supposed 
amusements and wearisome vacations would more 
than carry us through what lies before us, and 
without pain or undue weariness. It is wrong to 
credit work with the emotional and other excesses, 
with the worriments, anxieties, fears, and frictions 
that arise elsewhere. Let me keep in prime con- 
dition for my work, and let me fulfil my vocation, 
and you shall not hear me moan. Moreover, the 
way in which I work is an important consideration. 
If I concentrate upon the task at hand and conserve 
my energies I shall be little likely to succumb to 
fatigue. Only the short-sighted undertake con- 
stantly to drive the organism at full pressure. Let 
me moderate my pace and work rhythmically and 
presently you will find me distancing my fellows. 



168 Human Efficiency 

He works well who keeps within his powers, avoid- 
ing inner friction and enlarging his sphere of 
activity when the skill with which he labours 
warrants the increase. 

Different kinds of work demand different 
conditions and methods, and it would be futile to 
search for a single type. The efficient worker in 
any field learns how to fulfil his function to ad- 
vantage, and if you would know his secrets you 
must acquire them by actual service, never depend- 
ing on external imitation or judgment. For 
example, the successful farmer, master of numerous 
arts, learns how to manage a farm so as to adapt 
his activities to various needs, amidst circumstances 
that require sudden changes according to the 
weather and the demand for his products. The 
soprano knows how to care for herself that she 
may preserve her voice at its best, maintaining a 
high level of artistic productivity. The clergyman 
discovers what sort of recreation, physical exer- 
cise, or vacation is needed to sustain his professional 
life, without taking himself too seriously. The 
writer knows how to live and study so that he may 
collect ideas, give them opportunity to develop, and 
respond to the promptings of genius. Likewise 
with all others who are masters in their field. Some 
of these may be working hardest when apparently 
most idle, since real work for them begins in the 
life of reflection. Generally speaking, a man knows 



The Nature of Human Work 169 

how man's work should be done, while a woman 
understands woman's work, but there is also human 
work which all may understand by doing. Experi- 
ment leads the way in every sphere, but thought 
may follow and explain secrets to the competent, 
while science may modify in radical degree. Strictly 
speaking, brain-work is initial and fundamental, 
for always there are inertias to overcome, obstacles 
to be removed, or new paths to be worn. Whether 
or not a man be successful will depend in the first 
instance upon the use he makes of his head. They 
advance in the world who use their brains, that is, 
control them, and there never will be any dangerous 
rival. 

It follows that no economic or sociological 
view is sound unless it take account of this plural- 
ism of types and methods of work. The brain- 
worker as such has his rights, the manual labourer 
his, and it were vain either to regulate the com- 
pensation by the amount of time consumed or with 
reference to the merely visible product. The 
economic system must be as rich as human nature 
with its varied interests. As matters now stand 
the head-worker is as likely to be defrauded as the 
manual labourer. If any man is burdened by the 
thought of unjust distribution let him remember 
that all work primarily consists in understanding, 
controlling, and wisely using the brain. He who is 
master of his brain can make his way in the world. 



170 Human Efficiency 

The basis of successful work is mental co-ordination 
and cerebral training. 

Recognition of the fact that each type of work 
has laws of its own does not, however, show that 
the given worker is the one who can best formulate 
its laws and methods. To know how work has 
been well done in a general sort of way, it is indeed 
necessary to be with and observe those who like 
the farmer or housewife are actually doing it. But 
the master of scientific principles may then proceed 
to develop a plan which involves wiser expendi- 
ture of time and energy. For in the division of 
labour science and art are often widely separated, 
and some men are prevented by cerebral and other 
limitations from understanding the science of their 
own work until the specialist has taught it to them. 
Others are incapable of grasping the science even 
then, although they can be taught how to do a 
piece of work on scientific principles by the aid 
of a detailed schedule. It is important, however, 
to remember that the various types of labour were 
developed in the first place by those who acquired 
the art through actual service. 

Nor is the one who understands a given type of 
work, or manual labour in general, necessarily 
the one best competent to propound a theory of 
work, leading to an economic doctrine. Since 
efficiency is both quantitative and qualitative, it 
is impossible to state the laws of work without 



The Nature of Human Work 171 

viewing both manual work and brain-work from 
within, from the point of view of both servant 
and owner, producer and merchant, labourer and 
capitalist. One's sympathies are always with the 
oppressed, yet one cannot overlook the fact that 
each side of a case has its laws. The burdens which 
a head-worker or a manual labourer struggle under 
may not by any means be those of the mere work 
of his type, for what he needs may be the right to 
work both with his head and with his hands. 

Strictly speaking the genuine worker uses both 
head and hand, and never permits himself to 
become a creature of either. Even when the 
hardest work is done with the head, manual labour 
or out-of-door exercise rightfully supplements the 
activity of the brain. He who would be sane must 
keep grounded in one of the homely occupations 
that closely relate a man to the earth, just as he 
must have an avocation whatever the type of his 
professional life. Then his theories should grow 
out of his multiform practice. To undertake to 
reform the world by insisting that all work shall be 
industrial would be arbitrary and vain in the 
extreme. Without a vision the people perish, and 
we must have the fine arts, the sciences, and the 
life of worship. 

Work is most instructive when effectively 
performed with directly practical or ideal ends in 
view, not for the sake of giving an object-lesson. 



172 Human Efficiency 

For example, the farmer can best further the 
growth of character by developing his farm as 
successfully as possible, doing his own work well, 
and thereby aiding his associates to fulfil their 
part efficiently. A farm must be conducted as a 
farm, under the conditions which nature imposes, 
directed by the man who has learned to know and 
work with nature. If a moral must be appended 
let it be inspired by the work itself, and by encour- 
aging the farmer to speak as nature has taught him. 
Some of the most fruitful conversations in the 
world spring up amidst participants in toil. But 
when there is work to be done, or the crops will 
not be harvested in time, you should adapt your 
talk to the situation. Work compels us to be 
practical, hence it is one of the gods in disguise 
who hold us close to the life that is worth while. 

By the same law a book must be allowed to 
grow, a picture to approach completion, a sermon 
to take form. When you see an artist browsing, 
or a thinker ruminating, do not break in by giving 
him something to do with his hands. The worker 
must take the current when it serves, and you 
should know when to pass by in reverent silence. 
Each worker knows what is sacred to his peculiar 
task. The secrets of creation are locked up in the 
sphere of work, and he alone shall learn them who 
is faithful to his genius. 

A piece of work, then, has a life of its own, and 



The Nature of Human Work 173 

he knows what the spirit of work is who permits 
himself to follow this life in full receptivity and 
responsiveness. Fortunate is the man who can so 
organise his life that each day shall find him doing 
the productive work that calls to him from out 
that day. He may then put aside as less important 
whatever is not germane to the day, eliminating 
from his life that which in the long run does not 
further his work. Yet each man needs also to do 
something each day because it must be done to 
keep the domestic economy in motion. 

To work is also to pray, as we were long ago 
told, and he who works well need not pray much. 
We too frequently pray for those things for which 
we would rather not work. Work is an expression 
of strength, and the more steadily we pursue our 
ends the less likely we are to turn aside to utter a 
self-conscious prayer. He worships God best who 
most steadily pursues an ideal end. The man who 
is devoted to his work is little likely to need a 
religion that is sundered from work. 

"My Father worketh hitherto and I work. " 
He who must be about his Father's business has 
little time for aught else. He is sometimes assailed 
for working incessantly, or because he does not 
attend the functions of polite society; but this 
complaint always comes from those who have not 
yet found a sacred task. To do anything well is to 
devote one's life to it. That is, there are perennial 



174 Human Efficiency 

interests which are worthy of the utmost that is in 
us. These we discover after a time and we select 
one of them according to. our genius. The rest 
that goes to make up life may be adjusted around 
this central interest. When you find a man thus 
consecrated, aid him by every means in your power. 
If you do not like the way in which the world's 
work is done, do your own work in such a way as to 
show what genuine devotion means. It is sheer 
waste of energy to complain because you must 
work, or because the economic conditions are so 
very bad. Do something worth while as well as 
you can and talk less. 

Nature works by imperceptible changes, steadily 
moving towards her ends. Her powers are acquired 
cumulatively. Thus in all fields the successful 
worker moves silently towards his goal, some day 
awakening to the consciousness that he is arriving. 
Time hardly exists for the man who loves his work, 
for he is thinking of that which now ought to be 
done, which cries for expression. Thus if we 
learn from nature we live chiefly in the present, 
although gazing towards the flying goal which 
draws us ever on. To make a spurt is ordinarily 
speaking to lose time and strength. Real work 
means the overcoming of difficulties that stand 
directly in our path. It is irksome to most people 
to take pains, hence they seek time and labour- 
saving devices in directions where sheer concentra- 



The Nature of Human Work 175 

tion on details and persistence are called for. But 
the more thoroughness a man puts into his work 
the greater will be his reward. The inertia felt 
by those who do not take pains is often due to the 
pressure of unorganised energy imprisoned within. 
They suppose that more time for rest is needed. 
But the moral is, transmute this energy into per- 
formance by finding work to do that enlists the 
activities to the full. It is work, not rest, that is 
the salvation of the soul. Rest is a means, not an 
end. 

The efficient worker, then, is one who ever puts 
more and more thought into his work that he may 
take the far look ahead, adapt his hours to the 
task before him, husband his forces, and make use 
of the responsive powers of the organism. He is 
willing to make effort, that is, to concentrate 
without limit, his reward being the discovery of 
more favourable modes of expression of his powers. 
He knows when it is wise to rest, when by an act 
of will to push forward, or depend upon his second 
wind. He is sure to work enough to find full out- 
let for his powers, thereby avoiding the ennui of 
those who are nervous or self-centred. Thus for 
him work is a panacea as well as a means of liveli- 
hood and a joy. Absorbed in his work, he is spared 
many of the tribulations that beset the idle, the 
neurasthenic, and the selfish. Thus dedicated he is 
also likely to be more genuinely religious than those 



176 Human Efficiency 

who make of religion a self-conscious possession. 
His work, in brief, expresses individuality, and 
to be an individual is to find life wholly worth 
while. 

These principles are all very well for those who 
have time and money to carry them out, the critic 
will say, but what of the men and women who must 
labour incessantly under adverse conditions? 
There is indeed a difference between work in tfie 
ideal sense and mere labour or drudgery. It is dif- 
ficult for any one to rise above routine. It is hard 
to persuade those who are merely "busy" that 
there is a better way and a best way. But there 
are times between, opportunities for thought even 
in the busiest life. Those who lack the capacity to 
think for themselves or to develop better methods 
of work can be assisted by those who are able to 
think. There is no life of mere routine that can- 
not be bettered. It is neither a question of time 
nor of money, primarily speaking, but of thought. 
Thought does not occupy space and does not 
require time taken away from other matters, but 
may be added to the busiest hour, and it can 
transcend the dullest routine. 

There are indeed kinds of work that require 
time and leisure, otherwise such work cannot be 
done at all. For example, the genuine artist cannot 
paint a picture in a hurry, but must be free from 
nervousness, able to command various favourable 



The Nature of Human Work 177 

conditions. There will be days when he cannot 
work, times when a slight occurrence will throw 
him out of mood for the day. Likewise in the case 
of the writer there are essential conditions, al- 
though the author can overcome more annoyances 
than the artist. But when a writer or scholar is 
thinking out a subject scientifically he must be 
able in large measure to control his circumstances. 
To teach a subject scientifically one must have 
time and freedom. The same is true of many 
kinds of executive and legislative work, together 
with the work of the professions. It would be 
folly to introduce time-schedules into such work, 
insisting that the carefully prepared plan to fill 
the entire day shall be carried out to the letter. 
It is purely a question of quality. Time is a 
servant, not a master. 

Nevertheless, there are kinds of work that are es- 
pecially adapted to schedules. Hence the problem 
is one of efficiency within the conditions imposed 
by the world of affairs and the great industries. 
The housewife must perform a large proportion 
of her duties on time, and plan parts of her day 
very carefully; yet always with reservations in 
favour of types of work that require leisure. The 
farmer must be ready to change his work at short 
notice, and he may not know at night-time what he 
is likely to do on the following day. But for most 
of us both the tasks and the hours are assigned. 



178 Human Efficiency 

Hence it is a question of wise use of energy within 
the assigned conditions. 

Undoubtedly no condition is so complex as that 
presented by the home. Hence we may well 
consider it more at length. Can scientific manage- 
ment be applied to the home? Would it be possible 
to make a study of all housewifely activities and 
draw up a schedule so as to save time, materials, 
and money? At first thought the undertaking 
seems wholly impossible, since the housewife must 
do forty things in a day and, knowing from long 
experience how everything should be done, she is 
likely to resent a plan which seems intended to get 
more work out of her. Yet the housewife who 
believes she has learned the best way would admit 
that she acquired the art slowly and that there 
is still room for improvement. Granted that she 
must do forty things in a day, jumping from one 
to another, here is a problem pertaining to a 
special kind of work. Granted that she is busy 
from the time she gets up until she goes to bed 
late at night, it is nevertheless a question how this 
sort of work can best be done. No one would 
expect to solve the problem in a moment. Per- 
haps in due time it will be solved by those who 
live near enough to one another to co-operate by 
putting more kinds of work out of the home. With 
the central heating-plant, the central laundry, the 
source of power for running the vacuum cleaner, 



The Nature of Human Work 179 

and other modern inventions, there will be more 
opportunities within the home for the essentially 
human interests. Meanwhile, it is a question of the 
best use of the resources at hand. Surely, no 
scientific student of these problems would wish to 
get more out of the housewife, but would see her 
less fatigued and happier at the close of the day, 
with more accomplished. The statement seems 
absurd. But so did the promises first held out to 
artisans who by dint of much persuasion were led 
to try the new methods developed by " time- 
planners' ' and others who had studied the work 
in question. The woman who has the intellec- 
tual capacity to think the matter out and try the 
new methods will be the one to help the others. 
Such a woman knows that when there are many 
things to be done much depends on keeping one's 
head, letting the head save feet and hands, and 
co-ordinating the various activities about the 
house so as to avoid covering the same ground 
many times. If by taking these matters under 
consideration she is able to be a little more patient, 
less nervous, more contented, there will be some- 
thing gained. A calm interior will thus become 
the starting-point for better planning. 

To save energy rather than time should then be 
the first object. With this in view more attention 
should be given to the arrangement of utensils, the 
storage of supplies, and the adjustment of different 



180 Human Efficiency 

branches of work. If utensils are arranged accord- 
ing to the frequency with which they are used, and 
if they are readily accessible, the chances are that 
some can be dispensed with, while for others 
improved inventions will be substituted. The 
thoughtful housewife may object at first to the 
vacuum cleaner or the fireless cooker, for fidelity 
to the good old ways is strong. But a trial leads 
to reconsideration, and the steady introduction 
of improvements means a saving in energy, and 
eventually a saving of time. Some of these are 
expensive at first, but are economical in the end. 
The substitution of the dry-mop and the dustless 
duster for the old-fashioned feather duster did not 
simply mean a cleaner house. 

The alert mother enlists the services of children 
and others in the house when they are passing 
empty-handed and can easily carry needed articles 
to another room. She teaches even the youngest 
children to bear some part in the housework, for 
their sakes as well as for her own. She saves the 
time of the father, and also accommodates herself 
to his work, by posting a list of repairs and other 
necessary services which he can attend to whenever 
it is most convenient for him during the day or the 
week. When buying supplies she purchases by 
the wholesale if this be desirable, hence she saves 
annoyance. But she depends on purchases made 
day by day in cases where this is more convenient. 



The Nature of Human Work 181 

If she orders by telephone she first investigates 
that she may know of whom to order, hence she 
may dismiss still further details from her mind. 
On principle she breaks from her work a little 
while each day, even if she can go no farther 
than a room seldom used or into the garden. 

On the housewife the atmosphere of the home 
chiefly depends, and the responsibility is indeed 
serious. She is subject to change without notice, 
whatever she may have on hand, and is supposed 
to retain her sweetness, hold her patience, and 
maintain good cheer whatever happens. Yet she 
is the person who is able to do this. It is not a 
situation to shrink from but one to meet with 
composure and faith. What the housewife needs 
is not only the wisdom which her own work gives 
her but the incentives that can be gained by 
learning the principles on which others work. The 
art of housework implies an art of life, hence a 
science, and a scale of values or standard by which 
to test the relative worth of things and activities 
within the home. The woman who is worn out with 
over-scrupulous attention to one thing may well 
consider whether she is neglecting what is most 
important. The duties that must be performed on 
time naturally regulate to a large extent the house- 
hold activities, while other activities may be inter- 
spersed at odd moments with little thought of 
time. There are other duties that can be grouped 



182 Human Efficiency 

in such a way as to save time, energy, and patience. 
The maintenance of a contented spirit bespeaking 
inner control calls forth a harmonious spirit from 
others. One who carries a consciousness of the 
connectedness of everything in the home is able 
to spare herself at many points. The difficulty 
with some who seem unable to improve their 
conditions is that they have no method, but merely 
do one thing by itself, then turn to another that 
happens to be at hand. 

The woman who thinks is able to add any num- 
ber of interests to the central one, namely, being 
a good wife and mother. Thus she is not actually 
doing forty things in a day but just one thing with 
many branches, each one of which is contributory. 
She who is at unity with herself will manifest this 
harmony in whatever she does. If peace prevails 
at the centre it will be revealed in the face and the 
responses it enlists. It is never the mere work or 
the multiplicity of things to be done that most 
rapidly exhausts the energies at hand; it is the 
way the work is done, the sort of life that pre- 
vails at the centre. Efficiency is not merely a 
question of capacity and training Where there 
is love and interest there is a way. Some of the 
most efficient housewives in the world are those 
who have developed what powers they have in 
fullest degree without complaint because they 
have no other powers. 



The Nature of Human Work 183 

If these principles can be applied in the home, 
surely they may be put to use in all phases of 
human work. The main points for every worker 
at the outset are briefly as follows: (1) an attitude 
of willingness both to work and to learn, an open- 
mindedness or responsiveness; (2) adaptation to 
the conditions imposed, the methods in vogue, the 
schedules employed ; (3) concentration on the work 
at hand, that it may be well done, with economy 
of motions with rhythmic rather than spasmodic 
activities ; (4) preservation of a calm interior, free- 
dom from nervousness and a sense of hurry, a 
reposeful state of mind corresponding to the regu- 
larity of motion required for the given task; and 
(5) the play of thought or imagination which 
enables the mind to rise above mere routine and 
physical fatigue, give heed to the higher values 
of life, and reflect upon the conditions within and 
without that make for improvement. 

For the man who is able to adjust his time as he 
likes the problem of work is as truly a moral one as 
for the manual labourer who does what he is told 
and when told. Apparently nothing could be more 
delightful than to be able to work or not as the 
spirit moves. But the conditions that must be 
met and conquered are far more numerous for the 
supposed man of leisure. He is really free who has 
earned the right by conquering himself and his 
inner circumstances. Everything depends upon 



1 84 Human Efficiency 

the possession of a purpose of sufficient strength 
to call the powers at command into co-ordination. 
The man with a standard will persistently work to 
attain the standard whether his time be at his 
command or not. To have a scale of values re- 
vealing an end that is worth while is to be superior 
to time and to many other condition^ intent on 
realising the ideal. 

In other words, the mere conditions of work are 
never decisive in any sphere. The chief factor 
is the workman. For each class, type, tempera- 
ment, vocation, or profession, there is an art. He 
who loves his work will find a way to do it well. 
He who thinks can master the art which his 
specialism implies. For every labourer, however op- 
pressed, there are the relaxations and compensa- 
tions of the mental world. Of very great importance 
for every one is the discovery that a rebellious 
attitude, inner friction, a spirit of driving haste, 
exhausts the energies far more rapidly than the 
merely physical exertion. He labours well who 
works rhythmically with a contented mind. The 
economic problems that remain to be solved can 
best be considered on other occasions, when the dis- 
tress they cause shall not mar the hours of labour. 



CHAPTER VIII 



THE EFFICIENT WILL 



11 A LL the world is a little queer save thee 
/* and me," said the felicitous Quaker, "and 
sometimes even thee is a little queer. " Again, we 
hear it said that all men are more or less insane. 
Perhaps this explains why so few have seriously 
undertaken to examine all the conditions that 
make for sanity. Every specialist is said to be 
insane concerning his specialism. To make sanity 
a subject of direct study might be to render a 
person open to still more serious charges. Sanity 
at any rate pertains to the whole of life, whereas 
most of us are narrow, one-sided, often wilfully 
loyal. Is it possible to be wholly sane yet do our 
work in the world? It would seem so, if we can 
attain the right adjustment between the individual 
and society, between the particular and the univer- 
sal. That is, sanity would appear to be largely a 
question of the will ; for although to be sane is to be 
rational, nevertheless the actual adjustment of the 
will to the forces that play upon the organism is 
the real test. Therefore it is important to under- 

185 



1 86 Human Efficiency 

take a more thorough inquiry into the nature of 
the will. 

A friend whose sister was moderately insane 
made a tour of institutions in which the demented 
were cared for, and in the hospital which had the 
largest percentage of cures she was told by the 
physician in charge that he traced insanity in many 
cases to a will that had never been controlled. 
That is, the condition dated to childhood, to the 
time when the child should be taught to obey. 
In order to teach obedience this wise physician 
deprived his patients of various comforts and 
articles of food until they should learn to respect, 
not his will, but the unwritten laws of the insti- 
tution. He then proceeded to build on this initial 
structure of obediences. My friend's sister was of 
the self-assertive type, so was my friend, and she 
knew that this conclusion in regard to the untrained 
will was perfectly just, how be it there had been a 
special cause for her sister's illness. This is indeed 
a painful discovery to make late in life. * 

If there were more wisdom, instead of trying 
to break our wills, or giving us up as too difficult 
and allowing us to be disobedient, our parents 
would begin by studying and mastering the will 
in themselves, for we acknowledge that no one 
can command who has not learned to obey. The 

1 Some of the causes of insanity are forcibly stated by Mr. 
Homer Folks, in the American Review of Reviews, May, 191 1. 



The Efficient Will 187 

foundation of obedience is knowledge and accept- 
ance of natural law. One learns to obey, not 
people, but the universe, the moral law. The 
universe speaks through instinct, through pain, 
remorse, doubt, desire, a thousand mental and 
physical reactions through which we are brought 
in contact with real life. If I learn the lesson 
through actual conduct I shall be able to give others 
the benefit of my experience. Hence it should be 
possible to aid the will in childhood to evolve into 
obedience and usefulness. For the will, striving 
through all the experiences of life, is the power 
that eventually enables us to attain. The difficulty 
usually is that our knowledge of the successive 
conditions does not equal the power that struggles 
and strives. 

As we have before noted, the will makes its 
appearance as the central activity in the stream 
of consciousness, intimately allied with desire, 
receiving incentives from instinct, guided by the 
heart, and assuming progressive forms through 
our aspirations or ideals and the achievements of 
the intellect. At once a source of misery and of 
strength, the whole history of human character 
is involved in its actions and reactions. We are 
most likely to understand it by considering certain 
of its simpler phases, and then as we turn to its 
more complex life by taking care not to separate 
its contests and victories from the moral issues 



188 Human Efficiency 

in which the heart of human experience is involved. 
In some people, for example, the problem of the 
will is inseparably allied with an exceedingly 
sensitive temperament. On the surface this 
appears to be a question of weakness of will. Then 
there are those who are temperamentally positive, 
hence of strong will. The one appears to make too 
little of the will while the other makes too much. 
Yet self-assertion plays its part in both types. 
Then there is the question of the obstinate will, 
the problem of freedom, and of moral regeneration. 

Looking first at the will on the side of its unruli- 
ness, we are constrained to acknowledge that, 
whether sensitive or strenuous, obstinate or weak, 
there is in us all a fairly large element of inertia 
bound up with this lump of clay. Most of us 
like to be waited on, and if we can command the 
resources we are not only pleased that others 
should serve us, but we intend to command as 
long as possible. When ill we are content to have 
the utmost made of our aches and pains, unless 
experience has taught us more than common 
wisdom. The wits of physicians and ministers of 
all schools are taxed to the utmost in the endeavour 
to arouse the selfish will. The problem of the 
arousing of the will is indeed the problem of human 
life. 

Note, however, what happens in the homes of 
the poor where " necessity is the mother of inven- 



The Efficient Will 189 

tion, " where the will must find a way to overcome 
fleshly inertia. Again, we have all heard instances 
of remarkable changes when, to save their own 
life or the life of another, it was necessary for 
people to rise from a bed of illness, rapidly dress, 
and drag a trunk out of a burning building, or 
exercise uncommon strength in a daring rescue. 
A yellow-fever patient in a southern hospital is 
reported to have overheard the attendant physi- 
cian asking the nurse if he had given orders regard- 
ing the disposition of his body. Forthwith, this 
supposably dying man summoned the nurse to 
say with much emphasis that he was not through 
with his body yet, but would take care of it himself. 
Thus to be aroused in earnestness of will was to 
turn the tide of activity in favour of life at the 
critical juncture. Again, it was a woman of 
eighty who had a severe fall and was informed by 
the physician that she must lie still in bed six 
weeks before she could walk. This sterling New 
Englander at once replied, "Well, I won't." In- 
side of three weeks she was up and walking, ready 
to take a railway journey of ninety miles, and 
without subsequent ill-effects. I knew this woman 
well and her whole history was a record of similar 
triumphs. She was not rash, although sometimes 
called " headstrong. " Married very young, she 
reared a family of five strong-minded children, did 
the housework until she was seventy-five, and in 



190 Human Efficiency 

every way exemplified the victorious will. When 
her time came to die at the age of eighty -eight, the 
decision to go appeared to be largely her own. At 
least, those who were with her said that she 
seemed to " hurry herself out of this life" because 
it was no longer possible for her to be in the house- 
hold that was most congenial. However this may 
be, it is plain that the will in such a case has a 
deeply impressive history. Of such quality were 
those hardy ancestors of ours who reared the first 
homes on the shores of New England. 

Such instances suggest the sober thought that 
we do not half exercise our volitional powers. 
Usually in the cases of extreme illness sometimes 
reported, when life appears to be hanging by a 
thread, the will to go would probably be followed 
by death, like the snapping of a cord. But we 
ordinarily hear about the will to remain, and the 
subsequent readjustment. The will to die may 
have prevailed in thousands of instances of which 
we know nothing. Possibly the will has power 
approaching that of the gospel statement in regard 
to taking up life and laying it down. If we were 
more calm, with more power over all the emotions, 
we might be able greatly to increase the scope of 
the will. 

What happens when the will triumphs, as in the 
case of the elderly woman who rose from her bed 
the first day nature would permit? Evidently, 



The Efficient Will 191 

there was little inertia in this life of uncommon 
usefulness and power. It hardly need be said 
that she was a progressive, alert woman who 
always acted promptly, and who thus habitually 
brought her full powers into play. On occasion, 
it was but natural that she should have power to 
banish any ordinary illness, and in more serious 
instances to enter into full co-operation with 
nature. 

In case of the sudden impetus to save life, or 
the shock produced by the physician who arouses 
an indulgent invalid into self-helpfulness, the 
impetus breaks through and overcomes the inertia, 
establishing a new centre of equilibrium. " Noth- 
ing venture, nothing have, " is an old saying that 
applies here. If, when in doubt, oppressed by 
conflicting alternatives we put ourselves in motion, 
we are usually able to make a start, and thus gain 
sufficient headway to go on to success. If unwilling 
to make the initial effort, or if no favouring incident 
absorb the attention, we remain practically the 
same, mayhap inert for years. Yet, if we possessed 
more understanding of these matters, we might be 
able to rouse ourselves into activity even when the 
favouring incident is lacking. As rational beings, 
the will to act should follow the acceptance of the 
truth or the feeling that we ought. 

What we call the " obstinate will" is as much in 
evidence here as the triumphant will. I knew 



192 Human Efficiency 

another elderly woman who was heard to confess 
when past threescore, conservative to the last 
degree, wrinkled, unhappy save when eating or 
when conversing with an old-time friend, that 
after her marriage she resolved that her husband 
never should manage her. This resolution, firmly 
held to throughout her married life, was made 
because she overheard her husband assure a friend 
that it was his intention to govern his wife. During 
the long life of tolerable affection and harmony 
that ensued she kept this determination with a 
persistency that was little softened by love, but 
which marked itself in her face and narrowed her 
life beyond measure. Her children were progres- 
sive, and indulged in any number of new ideas and 
methods against which she set her face with grim 
fidelity to the good old ways. The result was an 
increasing struggle which ceased only with her 
death, at the end of an earthly life shortened 
perhaps by ten years through this obstinate asser- 
tion of the will. It seems beyond human power in 
such cases to speak even the word of love which 
thrills the heart and enables the will to become 
constructive. There are people who, when their 
"minds are made up," as we say, never change, 
and we must approach with extreme care lest we 
make a false touch. They are not people of wide 
information, hence the lines of approach are 
exceedingly few. They possess the will but not 



The Efficient Will 193 

the enlightenment, the requisite strength of char- 
acter yet not the means of growth. Hence habit 
accomplishes its most conservative work by en- 
crusting them in a mass of crystallised opinions and 
convictions. Our general human attitude in 
regard to declining powers and old age makes it 
the more difficult to show that "it is never too late 
to mend." 

Is it hard, do you say, that the second of these 
women should round out her days in wrinkled 
obstinacy simply because she rebelled in the 
beginning and then acquired the habit? Why not 
put the blame on the husband who loved her so 
little that he was bent on managing her, or on the 
parents who long before made so little of their 
child that at a marriageable age she had few intel- 
lectual resources? Stern in deepest truth is the 
law which thus spreads its power over a life-time. 
But look at the other picture, of the woman who 
faithfully met each opportunity, adapting her will 
to the promptings of nature, rising from her bed 
in triumphant exercise of the human spirit, work- 
ing in cheerful service, strong in faith, progressive 
and free. For us who would triumph the way 
surely is clear. 

No less instructive is the so-called weak will, 

a term that is sometimes misapplied, since what is 

lacking is not mental stamina but physical strength. 

In such a person's life there are usually interests 

13 



194 Human Efficiency 

enough, but they have not been called into effi- 
ciency. Sometimes, there is an over-cautious desire 
to know precisely h6w a proposed undertaking 
will develop before a start is made, hence the favour- 
ing tide sweeps by unrecognised. Again, there 
is a mistaken idea of guidance, as if conscience or 
God were expected to tell precisely what we should 
do. This shirking of responsibility easily runs into 
the fatalistic assumption that there is but one 
course we can pursue, namely, the one we are 
driven into when an inner feeling impels us to act. 
Thus to surrender the prerogatives of the moral 
life is to grow weak at the point where we should 
be most strong. The corrective is found in the 
unmistakable fact that we stand in the face of 
alternatives, hence that even when we feel what 
we take to be an impulsion from God that relieves 
us of all responsibility we really make the alterna- 
tive our own. The man who takes even the slight 
chances that offer and forges ahead, grows strong 
through successive acts of responsibility consciously 
chosen. By taking an alternative, or acting upon 
a resolution about as soon as made, he is able to 
co-ordinate his mental powers, hence grow in 
strength of will. 

In relation to his family, the man with a so- 
called weak will is apt to assent too frequently, 
yield too much, hence even his affections become 
negative. When the individual who has long 



The Efficient Will 195 

yielded for the sake of harmony at last undertakes 
to be more assertive, the attempt is likely to be 
made in an unfortunate way, under the assumption 
that the will is a separate power to be independ- 
ently affirmed. The result may be a second state 
worse than the first, when the weak will encounters 
a strong one which has long held sway. 

Another way to put the matter is to say that the 
weak will has too many inhibitions. Hence the 
power that might be spent in action is devoted 
to checking alternatives that might plunge one 
into controversy or pain. The policy of delay 
weakens the will, in contrast with that strength of 
character which in other people enables a person 
to face the issues at once. Again, there is dread of 
the irrevocable, hence through irresoluteness and 
inability to make a provisional decision action is 
postponed until vacillation becomes a habit. l The 
will is also weakened through non-resistant recep- 
tivity, too great emphasis on silence, and negative 
self-sacrifice. 

The resource is to look more deeply into the 
nature of the will. The weak-willed person is 
likely to prove as persistent and strong as any other 
when the habit of diffusiveness is overcome; but 
the persistency is expressed through gentleness, 
quiet confidence, the conviction that higher 
methods will triumph. This persistence in well- 

1 See James, Psychology, ii., 530. 



196 Human Efficiency 

doing may lead to a day when everything shall be 
plastic. For a person of this temper may learn 
easily and quietly the lesson which is so hard for 
the self-assertive individual, the lesson of obedi- 
ence. The sensitivity which is a source of trouble 
during a long period of evolution in character may 
then be employed in the highest direction. The 
knowledge gained through quiet study will become 
more and more a power, analysis will clear the 
way where assertion could not, and the ways of 
wisdom will prevail. Thus in time the so-called 
weak will may prove unconquerable even in rela- 
tion with the person who through autocratic 
assertiveness seemed to be master of the field. 
While the weak man is finding himself, building 
for the years, the strenuous one is preparing for 
his day of humiliation. 

Thus in a measure the will is independent of 
temperament, and the real problem is one of use of 
will-power through wise co-ordination. The in- 
stances and types we have examined fail to 
confirm the popular notion that the will is an inde- 
pendent or separate power to be merely aroused or 
affirmed. Its assertion may lead to as much 
trouble as its diffusion through excessive restraint. 
It is more truly a power of adaptation that can be 
turned from apparent weakness or strength into 
real efficiency. Simply to attend, to observe details 
and combine them, is in a sense as truly to will as to 



The Efficient Will 197 

be obstinate. As co-ordinated knowledge increases 
there is less need for assertion, hence the will 
becomes more intelligent. Moral opportunities 
strengthen character so that simply to be devoted 
to an ideal is to grow. The will is also strengthened 
by persistent effort to think for oneself. To 
11 invigorate the whole nature," as Carpenter 
points out, is to strengthen the will. 1 Hence there 
is every reason to regard the will in its relationship 
to the entire personality. 

It is impossible to reduce all modes of expressing 
the will to a single type. Some people are naturally 
rebellious, cantankerous. Their way of taking 
life, by complaining and making objections at 
every turn, is fraught with misery for all concerned. 
Observe these when further along the pathway 
and you may find them breaking through the 
conservative line and making objection where 
objection is worth while, setting the world astir, 
and introducing reforms. In due course they 
become as adaptable as people of the other type, 
for love softens their wills, they become tolerant 
and charitable, and put their emotions to good use. 

Representatives of the other type are usually 
long-suffering, while they are acquiring strength 
through endurance. Less conceited, they are not 

x See Mental Physiology, p. 424; also, Jules Payot, The Edu- 
cation of the Will, Eng. trans., New York, Funk and Wagnalls, 
19 10. 



198 Human Efficiency 

heard of so soon, do not publish their merits abroad, 
and seldom push themselves forward. But when 
aroused they are often more quick to act than their 
self-assertive brothers. Fortune comes their way 
after a time and they are known as lucky people. 
Well for them if they realise that in the stillness 
of the will there is great power. Onlookers wonder 
how they are able to accomplish so much. One 
of the secrets is found in the fact that they wait 
for fruitions, using their energies effectively by 
steadily doing what is in their power, wasting no 
time over matters that cannot be changed. 

Our volitions and beliefs are so intimately con- 
nected that we do not and cannot change our 
unfortunate attitudes of will while hampered by a 
doctrine such as pessimism, or weakened by 
invertebrate optimism. The will expresses the 
total mind as well as the whole character. A house 
divided against itself will find expression in a 
divided will. Men of varied types of character 
find opportunities for self-expression in numerous 
ways, all equally good. It is therefore futile to 
dogmatise. If the will needs to be restrained here, 
it needs to be called forth there. What arouses 
one man will have no effect on another. 

In all men, however, the will is partly the power 
to make effort, although there is no independent 
" sense of effort. " By sheer force of will for exam- 
ple, a man who is lacking in physical strength 



The Efficient Will 199 

may compel his organism to work when each hour 
of labour is painful. The second day the work may 
move off a bit more easily, while the second week 
there may be a fair degree of pleasure in the exer- 
cise. The third may find him stronger both in 
mind and body. The same persistence enables one 
to acquire a new occupation. In like manner 
people break through ruts and begin afresh amidst 
customs and beliefs that seem insuperable. On 
occasion one throws off fatigue in order to plunge 
in and help another who is more weary. On the 
whole, we like to think of the will as breaking its 
way in pioneer fashion, creating opportunities, 
saying " I can," while onlookers say, "You cannot." 
The limits of the will's triumph over circumstances 
have yet to be discovered. The inertia which 
sometimes nearly overwhelms us may well be 
regarded as a moral test for the will. 

Nevertheless, merely to say, ' ' I will/ ' is sometimes 
insufficient. If we would really succeed we must 
choose between a spasmodic or impulsive expres- 
sion of the will, and the endurance or resoluteness 
which considers the best means to the given end. 
For in reality, as we have noted in an earlier chap- 
ter, the will is not purely elemental. It supervenes 
on motions already in play through reflex actions 
and instincts, also on emotions that are habitual 
or are brought into action by the force of memory- 
images. Professor James points out that what 



200 Human Efficiency 

calls the will into play is not the inner push, "the 
consciousness of innervation, " but the image or 
objective, the idea in which one's interest is ab- 
sorbed. There is no doubt an anticipatory image, 
followed by the fiat that certain consequences shall 
become actual, but the idea of the desired end 
tends to become all-sufficient. Absence of any 
conflicting motive or motion is often the decisive 
consideration. "The immense majority of human 
decisions are decisions without effort. " x 

Always there are two or more sides to the case. 
The will, we have noted, functions every moment 
of conscious life; it is not a "faculty " that becomes 
quiescent when we are merely thinking, or while 
we are chiefly aware of the emotions and desires. 
The will is the man and the problem of its regenera- 
tion is the problem of the total salvation of the 
personality. The same person who on occasion 
triumphantly makes a road where no road led 
before, who valiantly faces opposition, or pleads 
for a lost cause, may in other connections be auto- 
cratic, domineering. Some people appear to believe 
the world is theirs to use as they will, at least they 
spend their time trying to act as if this were so. 
Well for the victim of this belief that experience 
compels us to acknowledge respects in which we 
are nothing and can do nothing. 

It is well to look at this aspect of the case for a 

x See James, Psychology, ii., 519-534. 



The Efficient Will 201 

moment. If at times the will can ride over cir- 
cumstance, there are respects in which nothing in 
nature can be ignored. If with the radical indi- 
vidualist I undertake to be wholly independent of 
my fellows, I shall be compelled to learn the lesson 
of dependence at every turn. The theologians 
are usually ready to confirm this insignificance of 
the will, assuring us that all efficiency is vested in 
God, from whom comes not only the power but 
the grace that saves. Indeed, if we could believe 
a certain school of theologians, we should be com- 
pelled to say that the possession of even a slight 
will of our own is the prime trouble with us. Some 
appear eager to deprive us even of this, insisting 
that every knee shall bow in acknowledgment of 
authority. And if we do not then feel the force 
of our littleness, there is a school of moralists ready 
to show that the possession of freedom is by no 
means creditable, since real freedom consists, 
not in doing what we wish, but in complete obedi- 
ence to the law of righteousness. To be free, we 
are further assured, is not to create the alternatives 
of our moral consciousness, for these are supplied 
by experience; what we are free to do is simply 
to drop back in the scale, ceasing for the time 
to be persons. Hence the highest spiritual ex- 
ample voices itself in the prayer, "Not my will 
but thine be done, " and always qualifies any 
request by adding, "nevertheless, if it be thy 



202 Human Efficiency 

will. " Then the poet, voicing the great mystery 
sings, 

Our wills are ours, we know not how, 
Our wills are ours to make them thine. 

The new psychology lowers the claims of the 
will as already indicated, by pointing out that the 
will is to a considerable extent merely a power to 
pay attention supervening upon activities already 
in motion, while the organism with its system of 
habits accomplishes the work. This is seen in 
physical modes of behaviour in which the will 
does nothing more than issue the mere fiat, or 
give heed to the goal to be attained. The will in 
itself is powerless to move even a muscle, to touch 
an organ or even a nerve. In this respect it is 
limited to local activity corresponding to the 
responses of the brain. When habits have been 
acquired the will does not even make sensible 
effort. In case of an unusually successful effort, 
as when a man rises from a bed of illness to save 
his life, or through sudden determination to live, 
we must presuppose favouring conditions splen- 
didly taken advantage of at the most fortunate 
moment. Again, it may be that higher resources 
are drawn upon at the right instant. It is well to 
narrow matters to this fine point, since we need 
not then exhaust ourselves by straining against 



The Efficient Will 203 

insuperable odds or by drawing upon our reserves 
when the supply does not warrant the effort. 

When we have faced completely around the 
horizon, we may stand erect once for all. We 
begin as children, self-assertive in high degree, 
but presently find wise ways to the ends which 
children cannot attain. Flattened to earth by 
sheer failures, we at length find it far from disap- 
pointing that we cannot rouse the will and move 
forth to victory in just our way. Experience 
gradually teaches us that all accomplishment is 
co-operative, involving the observance of essential 
conditions. But in the economy of nature it 
suffices that we possess power at the centre. To 
have the power to attend is enough to make one 
obstinate for a life-time, to insure optimism, or 
success, provided it be supported by a character 
that expresses itself in this direction. Narrowed 
to the limit, and driven into the secret recesses of 
its subjective stronghold, the will is still king. 

It would be deadening to be thinking all the 
while of the theological truth that there is only one 
real power. Having accepted the truth in humble 
submissiveness, we ordinarily act as though we 
could accomplish anything in line with our desires. 
I must believe in myself to become even what the 
most sternly authoritative God would have me 
become. I am potentially a master, and hence 
I regard as means to my end whatever I encounter 



204 Human Efficiency 

by way of opposition, discouragement, adverse 
criticism, and defeat. In this sense the whole world 
exists for my education. My will is seen in what 
it does, not in what it cannot do. 

The theologians who disparage the will to the 
extreme limit forget that they deem man capable 
of accepting the right creed, thinking out the true 
theology, and realising the ideals of righteousness. 
The will cannot be wholly denied with one breath 
and taken back with the next. To have power to 
be a person or to cease to be moral is enough. The 
will in itself is relatively dispassionate, like a 
ready servant. Human sinfulness cannot be attri- 
buted to the will alone. As an activity ready to 
carry out any prompting that is not inhibited, the 
will is capable of being regenerated if the person- 
ality is purified. The will shares, it does not own 
power. It may work together with God, in con- 
trast with the assertiveness that causes friction. 
The consciousness that we may thus share lifts 
the soul, enlarging the sphere of interests and re- 
vealing incentives beyond measure. We appear 
to have been surrounded all the while by treasures 
which we sought without eyes to see them. The 
opportunities that are revealed under our gaze 
surpass even our fondest hopes. 

Thus the victorious will is discovered through in- 
sight into the self as a whole. In sheer self-asser- 
tion the will counts for little. We lack power to 



The Efficient Will 205 

inhibit even a tooth-ache, to change a single hair 
white or black. To put ourselves in life's way is to 
find ourselves knocked about and trampled upon. 
That phase of the self which likes to be petted is 
vain indeed. We did not make ourselves, we did 
not choose our parents, nor can we scarcely will 
not to be. Yet every negation becomes positive 
when we turn about face. The weakest moment 
in the will's history may be the moment of transi- 
tion into strength. In that moment we may most 
truly know the love of God since we find that we 
are not cast off despite our folly and our sin. That 
which I most eagerly wanted to be while vainly 
self-assertive I can indeed become, through unison 
with the immanent Life which all the while sought 
to make me this self of my profoundest desire. 
The will in brief is that exercise of our nature 
which is capable of all varieties of response, from 
mere assent to the most heroic struggle, or the last 
victory over selfishness. Sometimes we merely 
give way when appetite insists, through sheer 
indulgence, lassitude, fatigue, and ennui. Again, 
we yield because of the persuasions of a friend. In 
calm moments we listen in reverent reflectiveness, 
realising that each thought registers a creative 
fiat. On occasion, we start forth in the full vigour 
of action like a Viking. Truly, we have great 
power, for when an idea strikes home, the die is 
cast in an instant, and the response begins. All we 



206 Human Efficiency 

need is knowledge to show when to make the 
venture. 

Our discussion shows that concentration is part 
of the successful will, and concentration we know 
is acquired when we exercise our powers steadily 
in one direction. Hence the significance of the 
psychological discovery that each word of assent, 
each item, motive, or argument may have its 
effect. Will is the activity that maintains or is 
maintained by the given direction, the central 
interest or prevailing love, growing cumulatively. 
Love is not precisely the same as will, yet where the 
heart is gathered there concentration occurs. We 
are not fully persuaded until the heart changes, 
but with the change the new equilibrium of will 
ensues. 

This centrality of the will is also seen in relation 
to beliefs and modes of reasoning. We are con- 
strained to acknowledge that it is the will that 
underlies all dogmatism, all resistance to new 
ways of thinking. The "will to believe" mars as 
well as makes us. In the guise of loyalty to a 
friend, a cause, or an institution, this will is one of 
the noblest possessions, intimately allied with faith. 
Again, we voluntarily select certain interests or 
ideals in order to stand for something in the world. 
Thus it is that we attain unity, become consistent, 
moral, strong. But in other connections it is this 
will to believe that is our intellectual undoing. 



The Efficient Will 207 

Thus we set our private thought over against 
universal truth, progress, and freedom, inhibiting 
the powers of reason, conservatively holding to a 
narrow creed. Stronger in will than in the power 
to reason, many of us thereby impede our growth 
for years. Prejudice and emotion come to the 
support of the will, and friends of similar persua- 
sion lend their ready influence. Finally fear adds 
its subtle power, through the suspicion that to 
yield to reason is to be lost. 

Yet if willing to admit this rebellion of the will 
we make immediate headway, and with the dawn- 
ing of a liberal spirit the day of conservatism be- 
gins to pass. Thus the intellectual victory of the 
will is much like the moral and spiritual triumph. 
The whole process of regeneration, let us say, is 
the acknowledgment of the order or law that is 
above us. We are truly strong when we think, 
act, accord our life with the universal; all our woe 
is due to the assertion of the private will as if it 
were independent or separate. There is a univer- 
sal order which seeks to express itself through the 
body as health, through reason as sanity and truth, 
through conduct as righteousness. The meaning 
of suffering is that we shall attain health, the 
significance of error is that it may be overcome 
by truth, and the meaning of evil that it shall 
be overcome by good. The cosmos forces home 
these central lessons until we learn them, and the 



208 Human Efficiency 

uprightness of the will begins with their accep- 
tance. The transmutation from lower to higher 
begins with the change at the centre whereby the 
direction of the will is made right. 

This is not acceptance through resignation but 
through upliftment into freedom. Resignation 
would imply not only fatalism but subserviency to 
habit. Deeper insight into the will shows that 
habits may be acquired at any time by concentra- 
tion upon ideals. Our dispositions are less stable 
than we think. The inner stream which we call 
consciousness ever presents new opportunities. 
Even conservatism must strengthen its habits or 
be overcome, and the obstinate will must continu- 
ally have persons against whom to set its face. 
We can make steady headway by dwelling upon 
the desired end and letting other mental tendencies 
and habits die for want of new subject-matter. 
Very much depends upon the "I-can attitude. " 
Hence persistent adjustment is the word. 

The task of the day is already set, you complain, 
and life must be devoted to earning our living, and 
maintaining the forms of society; other men and 
women we would like to be but cannot. Yes, the 
present task is given but not our manner of taking 
it. The foregoing inquiry has shown that the will 
manifests its power little by little, sometimes by 
mere assent. If it gathers headway so as to pass 
a milestone this progress is made by almost insen- 



The Efficient Will 209 

sible advances. Interspersed between the moments 
and hours of the busiest day man ever lived it is 
possible to put moments of quietude and reflection 
which shall help to refashion us in ideal forms. We 
introspect in vain when we look for a mighty- 
power to accomplish the great work suddenly. 
That is the vain desire of the shirking nature in 
us that wants to blame some one else and be 
free from responsibility. Look more carefully 
and you find an opening into the realm of 
accomplishment. 

The will, we have seen, is not merely rebellious 
or co-operative but also inhibitory. At that won- 
derful little centre where alternatives arise there 
comes with the temptation the way of escape; 
with the sarcasm, prejudice, or bitterness, the 
power to check it. Inhibit an impulse, fear, or 
rebellious mood at the beginning, and you have 
great power over it. Acquire a sufficient number 
of inhibitions in favour of a moral standard and 
virtue becomes a habit. Obstinacy will yield to 
1 ' this steady advance of the inhibitory power, self- 
assertion changes into constructivity through its 
influence, and the weak will becomes strong. In- 
hibition in turn becomes the basis of profounder 
control, and control at the centre means mastery 
throughout. The obstinate will is the one that 
steadily inhibits at the wrong point. The weak 
will needs to co-ordinate its inhibitions. The hesi- 
14 



2io Human Efficiency 

tant will must learn to plunge in. A good resolu- 
tion is worth while if you take the first opportunity 
to carry it into execution by checking the impulses, 
habits, emotions, or beliefs which impede by 
forcibly launching the new determination. What 
is needed is an approachable point, an opportunity 
for a flank movement. 

Inhibition becomes progressively self -operative, 
as it were, in proportion as the general tone of the 
character improves and the ways become establish- 
ed in favour of the ideal. Thus we are led to state 
the case in more intellectual terms. It does not 
follow that enlightenment means immediate re- 
sponse in conduct, but on the whole the tendency 
of rational evolution is that way. The unruly 
will may be the trouble with us in the beginning, 
and it may be well for the moralists to emphasise 
the fact that " to err is human. " But for the en- 
lightened there is an esoteric doctrine. Wilful- 
ness in all its forms is essentially wrong emphasis 
or disorder, and what is needed is a co-ordinating 
ideal which will bring consistency to the fore. 
There is no element of obstinacy or responsive- 
ness that cannot be turned to account. With 
the development of order at the centre, there is 
less need of the inhibitory function of the will. 
Poise or balance takes the place of the former 
conflict between passions and emotions, reason 
prevails. Hence the growth of character becomes 



The Efficient Will 211 

less a matter of will and more one of enlighten- 
ment. The interferences of the will become less 
frequent, and the ideal becomes a steadily pur- 
sued purpose. 

Thus instead of the ordinary conception of the 
will as an independent faculty or separate power 
to be exerted, as if it could stand apart and control 
the rest, or as if it alone were unruly, we have 
dwelt on various tendencies of character and 
phases of mental life. The will is not the first 
phase of mental life to appear, nor is it elemental. 
Supervening upon instincts, passions, emotions, 
and desires, it appears under the form of effort, 
assent, concentration, co-ordination, inhibition, 
interest, attention. It cannot be understood 
apart from the daily experiences which give it 
subject-matter and incentives, or apart from the 
character which it expresses. It is akin to desire 
at first, and manifests itself in unruliness or obsti- 
nacy, but under the guise of interest can be better 
understood in intellectual terms as human develop- 
ment goes on. He who would grow in power of 
will must not merely meet the opportunities that 
strengthen character, and increase the sense of 
responsibility but co-ordinate the desires that 
tend to favour the ideal or purpose, letting the 
others lapse through disuse. The most important 
conclusion at which we have arrived is the accept- 
ance of Professor James's theory that it is the 



212 Human Efficiency 

idea or objective which calls the will into power. 
This leaves us free to concentrate on the central 
purpose or interest of life, and on the imagery 
which strengthens its hold upon us. We need not 
then give so much attention to primitive emotions, 
for the significant emotion is the prevailing love, 
the ruling passion. If this makes for order, fulness 
of life, service, we may give more thought to the 
deeds and ideas that develop it through successive 
acts of attention. If it be unregenerate, selfish, 
so that we pursue ends for personal gain, coerce 
and manage others, check ideas and methods that 
tend to secure freedom and progress, why then we 
know where to begin radical reform. We are 
collections of tendencies rather than a unit. The 
will is the greatest unifying power. What we need 
is a love or purpose that inspires consistency. 
Thus the efficient will is a ready servant of the 
character that has become stable, the heart that 
is serene, the mind that is composed. 



CHAPTER IX 

SUCCESS 

A FEW years ago word was sent from Pekin 
that it was the intention of the Chinese 
Empire to stamp out opium, root and branch. 
This endeavour to prohibit the use of the drug in a 
land of 400,000,000 inhabitants is equivalent, as 
one writer remarked, to the endeavour to stop the 
use of alcohol in five countries, each with a popula- 
tion equal to that of the United States. The 
significant feature of the plan as thus announced 
is its thoroughness. Without sentimentality, and 
without attempting more at a time than human 
nature can accomplish, the authorities decreed 
that ten years should be allowed for the change. 
Hence full allowances were made for the laws of 
habit, and the weaknesses of human nature ; also 
for the property in invested interests, and the 
economic principle of supply and demand. The 
demand is attributed to the morbid craving of the 
smoker for his drug. The supply comes from the 
cultivation of the poppy from which the opium is 
extracted. Hence the first step is taken with the 

213, 



214 Human Efficiency 

decree that not an acre of new land in China shall 
be devoted to the cultivation of the poppy. All 
the soil under cultivation for this crop must be 
reduced one-tenth each year, under penalty of 
confiscation. That is to say, at the end of the ten- 
year limit not an acre of poppy -growing soil will 
be left in China. Meanwhile, through treaties 
and by other means the nations that deal in opium 
will be besought to stop the export of opium alto- 
gether within the ten years. The edict also forbids 
any one to begin the use of opium, and all who are 
addicted to the habit must be registered, only 
those registered being permitted to buy the drug. 
Persons over sixty years of age are not dealt with so 
severely, but all others must decrease the amount 
twenty per cent, annually. A further recognition 
of the laws of habit is shown by the command to 
physicians to distribute medicines serving as anti- 
dotes to the habit. Teachers, scholars, soldiers 
and sailors are required to abandon the habit in 
three months. Anti-opium societies are every- 
where to be established to spread the propaganda. 
Consider what reforms could be accomplished 
in the world if all people should begin by giving 
such thorough recognition to the enemy to be 
conquered, the conditions involved, the habits im- 
plied. If in China with its reverence for authority 
and custom such changes can be brought about, to 
be followed by other reforms no less radical, as the 



Success 215 

newspapers from time to time inform us, why 
could we not expect any sort of reconstruction 
from the progressive peoples of the globe? It is 
this kind of preparation for success that the modern 
movement in behalf of efficiency calls for. We 
have had this standard in mind in pleading through- 
out this book for recognition of all the forces at 
work in the human organism that are likely to be 
in any way influential. The man who studies his 
resources in this fashion cannot fail or need not if 
he cares to win. It may be well to expect improve- 
ment from the first, rather than to set limits in 
view of all that must be conquered. Nevertheless, 
the majority of us waste a great amount of energy 
by rushing ahead before we know whither we are 
going or what road will take us there. He who 
knows the whole field can rest with the assurance 
of a general who understands the enemy he intends 
to conquer on the morrow through adroit moves at 
the right moment. 

The present is becoming the age of the science 
of success, now that the day of mere precepts and 
fragmentary schemes is passing. If "nothing 
succeeds like success, M we should be able to demon- 
strate that this promise applies to the whole of 
life. For we have grown weary of merely external 
success, at least many of us are weary, and we 
refuse any longer to identify success with the 
amassing of great wealth, It is time now to dwell 



216 Human Efficiency 

on the conditions that make for success as the 
fruition of the whole of life. This need not mean 
the neglect of practical considerations. It is under- 
stood that "the labourer is worthy of his hire. " 
But it is equally clear that an enterprise is no less 
successful merely because it brings money. The 
luxuriously wealthy may still cherish the notion 
that money can purchase whatever life holds of 
value. Meanwhile, it is plain to any number of 
others that success is purchasable only in terms 
of wisdom, conduct, character. This implies the 
conviction that life exists for a certain purpose, 
that there are laws which secure success even 
though external and financial conditions be 
adverse. 

In the foregoing chapters we have been consider- 
ing the elements of efficiency from the point of 
view of mental principles. What remains is to 
bring together certain of these elements so as to 
show their bearing on success through character. 
The most important of these psychological con- 
siderations turn on the acceptance of qualitative 
as opposed to merely quantitative values. It is not 
the mere time we spend, the amount of work we do, 
but the attention we give to details, the concen- 
tration through which we bring many means to 
bear on one end, the incentive which enlists our 
energy in full measure. These values we have 
summarised more explicitly under the head of the 



Success 217 

will. The efficient life is in brief the right use 
of the will, with all that this power implies, as the 
activity which co-ordinates, which lifts the desires, 
develops character, and ascends to the level of 
thought. What we need is more knowledge of 
the conditions under which this ascending effort 
of mental evolution meets the opportunities of life 
from day to day. 

By the term "life" we mean the collection of 
instincts, feelings, and tendencies, which well into 
consciousness afresh each day. This " stream of 
tendency' ' is not like a listless river flowing so 
slowly that we cannot tell whither it is moving. 
Each day reveals not merely the habitual prompt- 
ings which lead us to arise at about the same hour, 
to dress, eat the morning meal, and go about our 
tasks. It requires very little self -consciousness to 
show that we are aware of strivings, dissatisfac- 
tions, and aspirations. When the best has been 
said in favour of our theories and creeds, the impres- 
sive fact remains that life is richer than theory, 
teaches above creeds. Those of us who philo- 
sophise strive to bring our ideas up to the level 
of the fulness of life. But life like a flood over- 
flows the bounds we set for it. Hence we need to 
make allowances, prepared to plunge in, not 
always knowing whither the current shall carry us. 

Our situation in brief is probably this: Our 
habits, beliefs, customary reactions to environ- 



218 Human Efficiency 

ment and vocational conditions, show what we 
have been, what forces have operated to bring us 
where we are. We cannot rightfully complain 
that we are thus situated, for there has been perfect 
correspondence between what we were and what 
these forces brought to us. But this ever- welling 
stream of life which quickens restless longing 
within us also shows what we shall presently be, 
or what we may become if it find us responsive. 
Desire is not merely indeterminate potentiality, 
but in its higher phases is like the shadow that 
forecasts the coming event. Beneath the strivings 
that give us our pains, the emotions that exhaust 
our forces, and the conflicts that make us well- 
nigh discouraged, there is this steady flow of life 
towards the ideal. We never rightly judge our- 
selves when we regard the processes merely. Truly 
to see is to behold what we may presently become. 
Truly to respond is to take the new prompting 
which life reveals to-day and ride over the top of 
the wave. 

Two points of adaptation are important if we 
would move with this incoming stream. We need 
a practical method of adjustment, and we need 
to carry on the life of reflection. Since ''conduct 
is three-fourths of life," the first essential is re- 
sponsiveness to the tendencies that send us forth 
to action, that keep us alive, expressive, spontane- 
ous, free, and that make us open to brotherly love. 



Success 219 

If I each day go forth in an attitude of joy and 
thanksgiving, eager to manifest more love, to be 
more considerate and gentle, I shall go far towards 
the attainment of fidelity to life. But, in the 
second place, it is also important to carry on a 
study of life as it passes, noting its laws, observing 
its comings and goings in the conduct of men. If 
I carry this additional consciousness, I shall all 
the while find incidents that throw light on life's 
pathway, and enable me to aid my fellowmen. 
Moreover, the life of thought is a resource which 
lifts us above material circumstance, above 
routine and all littleness. 

One's morning thought is naturally retrospective 
in a measure, that the past may reveal its lessons, 
and that one may renew ideals in the light of past 
successes. Yet what is chiefly called for is an 
attitude of openness or receptivity, as if one for 
the moment had no idea whither life might lead 
during the day. This attitude of listening forth- 
with gives place to the more active consciousness 
which a new incentive reveals, or it leads to the 
prompting to rise with energy and set about the 
work of the day. The day that might have been 
one of depressing servitude to the tasks at hand, 
the problems that are not solved, the burdens 
which must be carried for others, or the people 
to whom one cannot easily adapt oneself, may be 
transfigured by a consciousness which turns every 



220 Human Efficiency 

hour to productive account. We are not yet in a 
respectable frame of mind if we rise to our duty as 
"the same old grind,' ' declaring that "the game 
is not worth the candle. " The resolve to make the 
day just a bit happier for some one may be enough 
to turn the tide. 

To lead a successful life is thus to be intellectu- 
ally and morally productive. The unsuccessful 
person is one who remains in bondage to inheri- 
tance, habit, environment, a prisoner of circum- 
stance and processes. We are born to succeed, 
and we have the power to learn the meaning of 
failure. But it is possible to remain in subser- 
viency to the processes of success for a very long 
time, not knowing that they are processes. Hence 
the importance of sounding all these matters. 

"To him that hath shall be given, " is doubtless 
the first principle. As reactive beings, conditioned 
for work, we must make effort, control the brain 
more successfully, co-ordinate our movements, 
master our thoughts, endeavour to advance a step 
in the face of forces that hold us back. 

It is far easier simply to rise without thinking. 
Every failure, every moment of subserviency or 
defeat, is an opportunity to test the power we 
bear within us to respond, to arise and to create 
afresh. It is never failure itself that is the trouble 
with us, as a recent writer has said, "it is the effect 
that the failure has on us. " 



Success 221 

The successful man valiantly faces the present 
circumstances, the obstacle to be conquered, the 
trait in himself that must be overcome. Evasive- 
ness is not mere weakness and procrastination, it 
is playing with the inevitable. He who succeeds 
acknowledges where he stands, knows what he 
can do in the light of what he has done, what is 
not in his power now, but also knows that he 
cannot afford to fail in the present undertaking. 
He does not assert his power in general, or try 
to conquer many things at once, but opens wide 
the gates of power in the direction in which he 
should succeed to-day. Thus the energy that 
might be checked if he dwelt on what he could 
not do is concentrated upon the opportunity of 
the hour. 

The first essential is to set oneself in motion in a 
given direction. We have seen how this principle 
works in the case of the habit of swimming or 
skating, acquired long after the initial efforts were 
made ; also in the case of the good resolution which 
is confidently made and as confidently dismissed 
to do its work. Once in motion in such a way that 
the beginnings of a habit are established, we tend 
to keep in motion unless impeded by stronger 
influences. Hence it is as necessary to know the 
possible inhibitions of our unregeneracy as to make 
wise effort at the right time. But it is no less 
important to know when to stop. As Carpenter 



222 Human Efficiency 

says, ." When all the considerations which ought 
to be taken into account have been brought fully 
before the mind, it is far better to leave them to 
arrange themselves, by turning the conscious activ- 
ity of the mind into some other direction, or by 
giving it complete repose." 1 It is part of the art 
of life to know when to stop pressing a matter, to 
avoid dwelling too long in one direction of mind. 
Time settles many matters which persistent 
thought could not solve. On the other hand, 
there are occasions when to push through by 
downright effort is the only wise course. 

Our investigation has shown that in all mental 
processes there are less-conscious phases, and 
phases of mentality that are almost unconscious. 
Much of our thinking is a half -conscious brooding 
over ideas. Again, it is like firing at a mark, the 
idea aimed at being the central point of attention 
which calls forth the energies in that direction. 
The idea, at first a mere hint, strikes home, absorbs 
my attention, and presently I find myself thinking 
about that subject in full vigour, collecting under 
one head whatever I know about it, and arriving 
at new conclusions. 

Half the art of mental life is expressible in terms 
of training, inhibition, control; the other half in 
terms of adaptation to the laws and conditions 

Carpenter quotes capital instances in support of this 
view, Mental Phys., pp. 483, 533-4. 



Success 223 

that make sure the desired end. If the desired 
incentive be not strong enough to carry the day, 
we may make it so by stratagem, as in the case of 
the man who overcame the habit of smoking and 
drinking by quietly resolving to do so when the 
right time should come. If the obstacle be out- 
side of ourselves w r e must study the conditions, 
seeking lines of least or of successful resistance, 
1 ' then strike while the iron is hot. " 

If willing to await occasions, the self-reliant man 
is no less free to seek advice from every quarter, 
since he does not over-estimate his own judgment. 
This implies the conclusion that any prompting, 
instinct, suggestion, clue, or message, may be 
regarded as "guidance." That is, it may be 
reacted upon and turned to account, becoming 
guidance for the one who assumes the responsibility 
of accepting it. Thus even a doubt may be deemed 
a guidance if by reflecting upon it one learns what 
not to do, while a temptation may serve as an 
additional incentive to success. The prohibitions 
and restraints of one's nature are thus either 
guidances that serve as reminders, or signs of 
conservatism yet to be conquered. "A wx>rd to 
the wise is sufficient." Some of the profoundest 
statements ever made appear to be merely passing 
remarks until their import is seen. The wise do 
not often advertise their knowledge, but express 
incidentally the convictions or insights of a life- 



224 Human Efficiency 

time. Likewise the deepest guidance of one's 
conscience may be so gently whispered that it 
offers no restraint at all. A revelation from heaven 
would be such only for him who should know the 
signs. 

If you would emulate the wise in these matters, 
seek your own impressions first, think the thing 
out if you can; then when fairly in motion call 
forth the judgment of others by way of contrast 
and criticism. When you begin to seek light in the 
desired direction, send out your thought and note 
the response of conscience on your part, give scope 
to the imagination, let your mind play upon the 
plan for awhile; and then turn to something else 
for a number of hours. Meanwhile, your mind 
will have time to bring out of its depths whatever 
may tend to conflict with or support it. If tem- 
peramentally subjective, seek the company of 
people who are absorbed in doing objective things, 
or attend a social gathering in which the inner 
life counts for naught. If little given to intro- 
spection, seek those who are theoretical and sub- 
jective. In either case, give your mind time to 
collect the scattered impressions in the light of a 
sufficient perspective. The plan once considered 
and then dropped, but which forthwith forces 
itself on the attention, is likely to have meaning. 
In the case of vitally important matters, it is 
desirable to await a conviction so strong that one is 



Success 225 

sure the course in question is the one above all 
others to be pursued. For example, in choosing 
a vocation, launching a new business enterprise, 
forming a partnership, or planning to co-operate 
with new associates. Some of us are temperament- 
ally adapted to work with others, or with people 
of certain types, while others can best work inde- 
pendently. All these relationships can be tested 
in many ways besides sitting down to consider the 
bare facts with the hope that one can at once 
proceed to conclusions. 

On the other hand, there are matters on which 
it is well not to deliberate too long. Some of the 
firmest friendships are formed quickly. Sometimes 
the man of affairs who makes the sudden venture is 
the one who finds the surest road to success. To 
test a plan by making a tentative beginning is 
often better than to test it in imagination. The 
first move may show that it is wrong or that it is 
right. 

Another principle that makes for success may 
be briefly called enterprise. First get a thing in 
motion then follow it up. This is as necessary in 
the higher walks of life as in the world of trade. 
In the commercial world, persistent and skilful 
advertising associated with a name that takes, 
a trade-mark or picture that appears wherever 
the goods in question are mentioned, summarises 
the psychology of success. In the personal world 
is 



226 Human Efficiency 

a man who fails to keep himself before the public 
in the right way may be as quickly forgotten as an 
article that is renamed, or is no longer advertised. 
In the educational world everything depends upon 
the frequent and thorough reviews which instil 
desired ideas in the pupil's mind. In the moral 
life everything depends on continued effort, vigi- 
lance, the gradual acquisition of power through 
unflinching persistence. The same law is no less 
true of religion, for even prayer and worship lose 
their power unless habitual, and the very name of 
God ceases to have influence for those who do not 
renew the associations that gave it efficiency. We 
know all this, when reminded, but we seldom real- 
ise that a principle of great consequence is implied. 
In the biological world this is known as the law 
of use and disuse. Even our organs and functions 
grow weak unless steadily exercised. All evolution- 
ary attainments are gradually made through per- 
sistence in a direction where habit counts or 
where it is a question of imitation. With the 
cessation of effort decline sets in, and the favourable 
variation or association is lost. Life never stands 
still. Likewise in the realm of conduct, of art 
and science, whatever is successful is steadily 
maintained. The great pianist who practises 
eight hours a day in order to keep up to the stand- 
ard acquired through many years of work, well 
exemplifies the law. Psychologically speaking, this 



Success 227 

is the law of attention. If you would grow in 
knowledge and command of a subject, give care- 
ful attention to its details, analysing and sub- 
dividing until you attain mastery. If you would 
overcome an undesirable tendency, do not pay 
heed to it, do not express it, but attend to the line 
of thought or conduct which you wish to substi- 
tute for it. 

A man who could truly say of himself that he 
succeeded in everything he undertook, traced this 
mastery to a habit formed early in youth of ob- 
serving everywhere he went. Deprived of many 
educational opportunities which others enjoy, 
he always kept his eyes open for details. When 
watching a freight- train, for example, his mind 
did not merely receive a general impression of 
browns; he noticed the numbers on the cars, the 
initials that indicated the names of the railways, 
thereby gaining data which led to knowledge of 
the great railroads of the country. In the city he 
observed the numbers as well as the signs on the 
street-cars, the location of fire-alarm boxes and 
fire-apparatus, and a thousand other details which 
the majority pass unnoticed. In due time the 
powers of attention thus fostered turned in other 
directions, always with the minuteness and thor- 
oughness which this habit had enabled him to 
acquire. It hardly need be added that this man 
always kept his direction in a strange city as well 



228 Human Efficiency 

as in a forest, was always able to return where he 
had been before, seldom found it necessary to 
inquire the way, and as a habit investigated and 
thought for himself before questioning others. 
He also knew what he knew, what he merely be- 
lieved, and where he stood in all respects. To 
that extent at least he realised one of the ideals 
of the educated man. 

Observe the inefficient people you meet and you 
will find abundant illustration of the law of disuse. 
Here is a person, for instance, who for nearly 
thirty years has made indexes for deeds in a county 
court-house. Unable to do anything else because 
untrained, this person long ago mastered the 
vocation in question, but without providing an 
outlet for the energies not therein employed. 
Impulsive, emotional, she has little command 
over her thoughts, but describes her mind as "a 
mere brain with flitting ideas." She has power 
that would have made her efficient in several 
directions, and a love of knowledge which called 
for thorough intellectual training. The mental 
powers which might have been put to use now 
exhaust themselves in chaotic impulses and emo- 
tions which make their possessor a slave to fear. 
The moral in her case is, Begin early to cultivate 
your powers systematically, have an avocation, 
and see to it that abundant opportunities are 
provided for all your energy; otherwise the wear 



Success 229 

and tear of nervous habit will throw the intellec- 
tual life out of use. 

One frequently meets people who have reached 
middle life without even acquiring a vocation, 
although they possess good minds and are capable 
of highly efficient service. Sometimes this is due 
to the fact that necessity never compelled them to 
work for a livelihood, to do things "on time, " or 
in any way break from the life of self -gratifying 
desire. Again, it is traceable in part to a negative 
goodness that has never been tested by the severer 
experiences of life. In the absence of these matur- 
ing experiences, such a one usually remains youth- 
fully innocent. The temperamental interest calls 
for wide acquaintance with the world, for thorough 
knowledge made possible through excellent intel- 
lectual training. Undeveloped in these direc- 
tions, such a person moves in a small sphere, 
lacking in initiatives, dependent on others, even 
when in the presence of desired objects which 
like prominently displayed signs escape inatten- 
tive eyes. Hence the intellectuality which might 
have been productive is centred upon the inner 
life, the preservation in minute detail of bodily wel- 
fare and all that pertains to the emotions. Such 
a person is usually obstinate, full of prejudices, 
and in later life is given to pettiness of various 
sorts. The moral in such cases is not merely intel- 
lectual, but points to the imperative necessity of 



230 Human Efficiency 

breaking free from self-complacent ease into a 
mode of life which tends to overcome subserviency 
to habit, to the senses and the brain. The man 
who though untutored in things intellectual has 
had varied experiences which foster manliness is 
far more advanced in actual development. 

Such cases are typical of those who endeavour 
to be spiritual in a supernatural sense before they 
have even acquired the command over the body 
which life in this world ordinarily brings. Again, 
there are those who through lack of purpose have 
so little outlet for their energies that the power 
which would make them intellectually productive 
is spent in card-playing, in small talk, and nervous 
self-centredness. Others are inefficient because in 
their endeavour to be broad, tolerant, and sym- 
pathetic they do not hold firmly enough to any 
one creed to master it. There are also those who 
live too much with one sex, one family, one social 
group, or in one town. Deadly sameness is thus as 
detrimental as its opposite. 

But it is not alone through the deficiencies of 
early training and limited relationships with the 
world that human energy plays mischief through 
disuse. Sometimes it is the person of decided 
ability and of good education who exemplifies the 
law. There is, for example, inordinate ambition 
due to pent-up energy and a perpetual striving to 
attain. Again, it is a subjective individual who is 



Success 231 

open to many influences, who gives too much heed 
to advice, is too free and pliable. Or, it is an over- 
theoretical individual whose active life is inhibited 
by doctrinal analyses that are never ended. The 
saddest case is that of the woman whose affections 
are checked by absorption in the affairs of the 
commercial world. 

The successful types of men and women are not 
by any means limited to those who are objectively 
enterprising. Here is one, for instance, who is 
calmly reflective even when in company. He does 
not care to talk much, but delights in bringing men 
and women of quality together that he may hear 
them converse on subjects that are worth while. 
He is a man of wide information and acquaintance, 
with many points of contact. Essentially of the 
judicial type, he is in every w r ay as efficient as 
people of the impulsive sort. One of this type is 
likely to exemplify more of the elements of success 
than the person who is objectively aggressive. He 
begins as he can hold out, keeping steadily at his 
work day by day. When he rests he really rests, 
and if he spends a few weeks in the country selects 
the sort of recreation that is of genuine value. In 
short, he knows how to get full worth from the 
opportunities at hand. 

The successful man not only rises above routine, 
but is able to turn supposedly disagreeable tasks 
to account. Here is one, for instance, who has 



232 Human Efficiency 

moved the household goods many times, and has 
learned to make the moving-time profitable. 
Regarding the activities of packing, moving, and 
settling as an avocation, he plans a little more 
carefully each time, endeavouring to develop a 
system, secure more order. He then turns to his 
regular work refreshed and with renewed incen- 
tives. The same is true of a man who has learned 
to distribute his vacations throughout the summer 
by rising an hour earlier, walking to his business, 
and devoting time en route to the study of scien- 
tific books. The change was not made through 
necessity, but because a mere vacation seemed 
profitless. In this way he has acquired a fund of 
information outside the world of affairs. 

Another man, a hale and hearty Vermonter, 
attributes a large part of his success to the life- 
long habit of walking in the country, not as a 
mere exercise but as a means of throwing off what- 
ever illness he may have found himself falling into, 
also depressing and other mental states or moods 
that tended to interfere with his normal life. His 
one resource is to " walk it off. " 

If the successful man is one who takes the long 
look ahead, he is also one who for the most part 
lives in the present. When inclined to be dis- 
heartened, he cuts loose from the past as with a 
knife, and begins again. Thus to live is to realise 
that there is little reason in the immediate present 



Success 233 

for distress, discouragement, or anxiety. For the 
downcast mood was probably due to an accumula- 
tion of fatigues and depressions, the cure for which 
is rest, or a complete change. If angry, to hold 
still in the present is to find that the occasion for 
the anger has passed. If anxious, one can decide 
upon a course that is wise, hence dismiss the 
tribulation for the time. If ill, one will naturally 
do in the present that which will secure a return 
to health in the near future. 

It is interesting to find highly successful men 
summarising these matters in terms of their own 
experience. One of the ablest railroad men in the 
United States, about to retire from active work 
at sixty -five, declares that " There is no genius. 
It 's hard work. The world belongs to the young 
man. I am going to retire because I want to live. 
A man must be possessed by his work and be 
able to manage it. " This is apparently a confes- 
sion that he himself did not wholly succeed in 
working and living too. Nevertheless, he avoided 
the extremes to which some go. There is a wealth 
of argument in his statement that "Thinking in 
bed killed Harriman. He worked all day and 
thought out his problems at night." 1 

Again, it is a man of unusual power who points 
the way for those who have energy but do not use 

1 Quoted from Mr. J. C. Stubbs, in The World's Work, June, 
191 1. 



234 Human Efficiency 

it to the full. In an address on efficiency in Chicago 
ex-President Roosevelt is quoted as saying: 

It has always seemed to me in life there are two 
ways of achieving success, or for that matter, achiev- 
ing what is commonly called greatness. One is to do 
that which can only be done by the man of exceptional 
and extraordinary abilities. Of course this means that 
only this one man can do it, and it is a very rare kind 
of success or greatness. The other is to do that which 
many men could do, but which, as a matter of fact, none 
of them actually does. This is the ordinary kind of 
success or greatness. Nobody but one of the world's 
rare geniuses could have written the Gettysburg speech, 
or the second inaugural, or met, as Lincoln met, the 
awful crisis of the Civil War. But most of us can 
do the ordinary things, which, however, most of us do 
not do. Any fairly hardy and healthy man can do 
what I have done in hunting and ranching if only he 
really wishes to, and will take the pains and trouble, 
and at the same time use common sense. Any one 
who chose could lead the kind of life I have led . . . 
and by "choosing," I of course mean choosing to ex- 
ercise in advance the requisite industry, judgment, 
and foresight, none of them to any extraordinary 
degree. . . .* 

To say all this is to acknowledge that the success- 
ful man is a person of character. Apparently this 
means the sad fact that people differ in capacity, 

1 Quoted in System, June, 191 1. 



Success 235 

hence that success in marked degree is only for 
those who are born with great brain-power. But 
the foregoing discussions have led us to take a 
different view, and have brought us in sight of a 
number of principles which are of great conse- 
quence in the formation and strengthening of 
character. What we so often call character, that 
is, "the innate power' ' which because transmitted 
we take to be immutable, is not by any means 
single. Nor is it necessarily a fixed quantity. It 
would be more correct to say that we start life 
with an assemblage of traits and tendencies which 
we divide into two groups after a time, those that 
are undesirable, with which we refuse to identify 
the self, and those that we will to make more 
truly our own. We are apt to forget that it is not 
what is given us but what we work for that is of 
value. So-called character is regarded by the man 
who truly knows himself as the resistance offered 
by his lower nature or disposition, of value chiefly 
because it calls him forth in creative self-develop- 
ment. A man's disposition may indeed be desir- 
able, but it becomes permanently identified with 
himself only in case he wills to make it so. The 
great writer who declared that he had been four dif- 
ferent persons in the course of his long life, tacitly 
confessed that there had also been a fifth, namely, 
the one that knew and accepted parts of these in 
favour of the deeper selfhood which lived on. 



236 Human Efficiency 

It would be a strain upon the term to call 
our supposably innate character "subconscious. " 
Unconscious it no doubt is in part, since we do 
not know what manner of men we are until experi- 
ence calls our traits of character into expression. 
But some of these are merely physical tendencies, 
not in any sense subconscious until called into 
expression and first made conscious. Others imply 
the notion that we have wonderful powers on 
which we can rely when all else fails, as if great 
stores of wisdom were locked within our "infallible 
intuitions. " This notion is dispelled with the 
criticism which we have passed on the whole idea 
of the subconscious. What remains can be more 
intelligently examined under other terms. 

We were unable to accept the popular notion 
now widely prevalent that the self lies below the 
threshold of consciousness, for it is when the will 
is in full action that a man is most truly himself. 
He who sees the meaning of this conclusion realises 
the truth of our argument that character strictly 
speaking begins with the will's reactions upon 
experience in the light of instinctive and other 
habitual responses of the entire organism. Out 
of the various desires, emotions, memory-images, 
and impulses which well up within us we begin 
to select those that fulfil our purpose in life, hence 
we lay the foundations of character. This mental 
co-ordination is indeed partly determined by our 



Success 237 

education, environment, and vocation. Yet the 
time comes when we either break with our past 
or accept it for the most part because it tends to 
fulfil our idea. 

Every one of us is aware of divisions within the 
self, and these in extreme cases involve split-off 
consciousness which for the time is like another 
personality. But this does not prove that there 
are actually two or more men within us. The 
resource is to follow the principle outlined in our 
study of mental co-ordination, namely, elimination 
of undesirable phases of the self, and the welding 
of desirable tendencies into a single consistent 
character through steady concentration on a line 
of work that is worth while. In a sense we are all 
in process of becoming self-consistent. It is 
purpose, a work to do that enlists all our activi- 
ties, which calls us into unity. People who have 
no purpose in life are mere collections of possibili- 
ties. It is an inspiration to realise that character 
is to a considerable degree what we create out of 
such a collection by meeting opposition, overcom- 
ing obstacles, mastering our disposition, steadily 
working towards the goal of our highest aspirations. 
For we need not be troubled by the unruliness 
which rises into expression to test our strength. 
Nor need we in any way identify what we will 
to be with the lower selfhood. 

It might be contended that the person with a 



238 Human Efficiency 

weak will, like the victim of divided personality, 
really has no will at all. This may be true from 
the point of view of a noble standard of self-consist- 
ency. But to insist on this point would be to forget 
the important distinction on which we have in- 
sisted, that disposition is not the same as character. 
A man of yielding, receptive disposition does indeed 
appear to be without a will during the period of his 
life in which he is finding himself, meeting and 
learning the influences which affect him deeply. 
But his experimental years pass when he discovers 
an interest that enlists his powers. His receptivi- 
ties are then dedicated to ideal influences, and the 
will-power that was formerly scattered and divided 
is concentrated. 

A person of strenuous or tyrannical disposition 
is known in the world as one of strong character. 
But character in the true sense of the word begins 
when, as in the case of the weak-willed person, 
there has been regeneration. The alleged strength 
is partly due to the conflict between a pronounced 
disposition, and the moral influences of society 
which tend to overcome this strong self-will. Like- 
wise in the case of the weak-willed person there is 
a conflict between an essentially pliable disposition 
and the forces that make for character. In both 
cases there are virtues and weaknesses in the dispo- 
sition. The weak-willed person is ordinarily one 
who is more moderate in bringing to the surface 



Success 239 

the powers that make for strength of character. 
But there may be as much tenacity, on occasion 
as great obstinacy, as the strong-willed person 
shows. For some people are temperamentally 
courageous, abounding in resistances, while others 
gradually acquire resistance, and courage. In the 
end the so-called weak man may be as strong as his 
opponent. Indeed, he may be more closely co- 
ordinated, since his gradual emergence into free- 
dom through the discovery of a favouring line of 
action gives him sure command of his resources. 
Hence he acquires strength to meet harder 
situations. 

Character in brief is constancy in the pursuit 
of a purpose, and involves self-reliance, fidelity, 
definiteness, self -consistency as a progressive 
ideal, obedience in the sense of acceptance of the 
law of the universe. It also implies a measure of 
independence, originality, and initiative. In 
marked cases it goes with profound insight, the 
power to think out the laws of things, to think 
for the age in which one lives. 

No doubt every person of pronounced charac- 
ter is in a sense a severe critic. Yet there is a 
vast difference between the demand for perfection 
and the idealism that sees the wisdom of things in 
the making. Genuine large-mindedness goes with 
the acceptance of life and of people. Hence it is 
not so literal, has room for the imagination, as well 



240 Human Efficiency 

as for a sense of humour. It accordingly generates 
contentment in the best sense of the word. One 
who has attained it is not only charitable but is 
ready to overlook faults and have a " blind eye. " 

We may also learn to live in two worlds at a 
time, the world of our work and that of the imagi- 
nation. Side by side with the weightiest burdens 
we may carry a poetic romantic region into which 
we may enter at will. He who is wise and free 
does not hesitate to remain in the childhood of the 
world in this respect, or even to people every-day 
life with creatures of his own. Moreover, the 
imagination may be employed in the construction 
of our plans and ideal schemes. 

If you would grow in efficiency, associate as 
often as you can with people of marked efficiency. 
Listen to speakers of uncommon power what- 
ever their theme, endeavouring to discover their 
sources of power. Hear the best music, visit 
the galleries where the best pictures may be seen, 
and associate when you can with people of marked 
executive power. Always seek the best and your 
own standard will rise. The principles of success 
are virtually the same in all the arts. 

Our inquiry has shown precisely how to begin 
if we would secure greater efficiency. First we 
must study the way in which we work or live now, 
then consider how it can best be done on scientific 
principles. Having developed our schedule or 



Success 241 

plan, we must put before the mind an incentive 
sufficient to enlist our energies, patiently training 
ourselves so far as need be. Since it is the objective 
that calls us into power, we may concentrate on 
that, forgetting about the processes of mind and 
body. Thus, having passed through the self- 
conscious period in which we have questioned 
nearly everything that is in our nature, we may 
again give over most of our activities to the con- 
trol of habits, absorbing ourselves more and more 
in our work. 

In our study of the will we saw that it is possible 
to make the effort required to overcome the iner- 
tias of our lower nature by paying sufficient atten- 
tion to the end to be attained, since it is the drawing 
power of the ideal, not the prodding from behind, 
that secures volitional efficiency. The more we 
know about the resistances to be overcome and 
the lines of approach, the more directly we may 
concentrate on the goal. Since work consists in 
the first place in the victory over the inertia of the 
brain, we now know how to enlist the energies 
of the organism without spending our strength 
where it will be of no avail. It is this knowledge 
which gives real power. 

The same principles show how to win our way 
with other people. First considering the nature 
of the individual to be met, the probable resist- 
ances, prejudices, and inertias, one naturally avoids 
16 



242 Human Efficiency 

self-assertive methods, coerciveness, and dogma- 
tism, by appealing to the other's interests, arous- 
ing the attention in such a way as to call reason 
into play. The intellect once persuaded, the heart 
touched, then the rest will follow. Here is the 
heart of the matter psychologically speaking. 
The secret of efficiency lies in the right appeal 
to the attention. 

Here too is the turning-point in all self -improve- 
ment. The greatest victories are won at the cru- 
cial centre where through work energy is brought 
into action inspired by an ideal. For is it not here 
that pride is conquered and selfishness transmuted? 
Is it not here that hate is changed into love, passion 
into gentleness, unruliness into obedience? 

The heart of efficiency, the secret of success, 
lies here. Efficiency has resolved itself into the 
victorious expression of the will in the presence of 
an adequate incentive, with the power of paying 
attention which overcomes the resistances of 
habit and disposition. We need no longer condemn 
ourselves or others. We need not falter or be 
discouraged. It is first a question of knowledge, 
then of quietly persistent effort. The victory won 
at the centre, the organism as a whole can be 
brought into full play. The victory gained in our 
own selfhood, we may lead others along the same 
road. 

Is it merely a question then of the survival of 



Success 243 

the wisest? Shall we do nothing for the unfit? 
That would be to advocate the other extreme. 
We are pleading for the right of the efficient to 
become more efficient and achieve the type. To 
raise the standard is to help every one. Success 
is impossible at best unless others are tenderly 
cared for. Love is the greatest success in the 
world. Brotherhood is the culmination. Hence 
our investigation once more leads beyond mere 
prudence and self-development to the heights of 
the moral ideal. x 

1 For a discussion of the four types of character, see McCunn's 
The Making of Character, New York, Macmillan. With reference 
to vocational guidance, see Choosing a Vocation, by Prof. F. 
Parsons; Vocational Guidance, by M. Bloomfield, Houghton, 
Mifflin and Co. 



CHAPTER X 



INSIGHT 



WHAT is the choicest gift of the inner life? 
I do not say the greatest gift, for we agree 
that the greatest is love. But what attainment is 
most rare, most widely needed? My answer is, 
insight, the ability to discern the significant or 
essential in human life; to know a worthy or 
righteous man, a sound teacher, faithful worker, 
sincere leader; and the power to discern ideal 
tendencies in the conduct and character of men. 
Such insight is an ideal to be striven for as of 
priceless value. It is more an attainment than a 
gift for reasons which will presently appear. Hence 
it may be regarded in the light of tendencies now 
active within us, and with reference to our 
special interests. If awareness of our shortcomings 
compels us to disclaim any title to it, we may at 
least consider what conditions are within our 
control, under what modes of life the forces that 
make for insight are fostered. 

That there is abundant need of insight becomes 
plain when we note in what a haphazard fashion 

244 



Insight 245 

most men choose a vocation, advise others in 
regard to the vital issues of life, and blunder along 
amidst conflicting tendencies within their own 
natures. Ordinarily, it is instinct, impulse, habit, 
or emotion that rules, while the life of thought 
plays an intermittent part in the rear. In the 
foregoing chapters we have been showing that 
this haphazard life may give place to a well- 
ordered life through self-knowledge, control, co- 
ordination, right volition, and the growth of that 
philosophic reflectiveness for which we have argued 
as .an essential to success. The cultivation of 
insight accordingly follows as matter of necessity 
if we are to carry the life of efficiency to the highest 
level. Here, again, we are concerned with an 
essentially human need, as imperative in the com- 
mercial leader as in the legislator, the teacher, the 
scholar, or the parent. Just as each vocation 
reveals principles that pertain to the mode of 
work in question, so experience generates its gifts 
and accumulates the wisdom peculiar to the specific 
task. Nevertheless, there are qualities which 
pertain to insight as a general power. Hence, as 
in our study of success, we may take certain prin- 
ciples for granted, assuming that each man knows 
what applies to his calling, and turn to the less 
familiar aspects of the question. We also assume 
a certain devotion to truth and righteousness 
without which it can hardly be a question of 



246 Human Efficiency 

insight at all. Mere experience may make us 
acquainted with the wiles of men and the " tricks 
of the trade' ' ; it may also give us discretion, adap- 
tability, and other prudential accomplishments. 
The real issues come in sight when we look beyond 
mere self-interest to the realm of ideals. Strictly 
speaking, this is a moral question, but we shall 
still find our way by keeping close to the lines 
of approach to the ethical ideal which psychologi- 
cal analyses disclose. 

Some one has said that nothing is so dangerous 
as a half-truth. The difficulty is that not even the 
prophets of such doctrines know that they are 
half-truths, while the scholars who could expose 
and correct are engaged elsewhere. This is well 
seen in the case of beliefs which we examined in 
our study of subconsciousness: a half-truth ac- 
cepted means false inferences all along the line. 
We are sure of our inferences only in case we as 
individuals possess sufficient knowledge of the 
human mind to know what processes are central. 
It is imperative, therefore, that each of us shall ac- 
quire a standard by which to discern the realities 
and truths from the appearances and errors with 
which they are commingled. This calls for criti- 
cism not only of the instincts and prejudices by 
which we are ordinarily influenced but of the 
supposably peculiar powers which we differenti- 
ate as " psychical' ' to the disparagement of reason. 



Insight 247 

We begin to make headway with the distinction 
already insisted upon between mere experience 
or expression and the principles by which we en- 
deavour to interpret the experience under considera- 
tion. Of far more consequence than an experience 
which leaves us with a sense of mystery, as if by 
miracle we could read the human heart, or receive 
the secrets of heaven, is the possession of a first 
principle by which we may classify all our experi- 
ences according to their value in a system. For 
we may then distinguish between the first form 
of an experience, the channel through which it 
comes, and the thought through which we analyse 
and explain it ; we may single out a first impression 
of human character and relate it to our general 
knowledge and our second thought; and we may 
rise above the conservatisms of our vocation or 
creed to the level of disinterested insight. 

Assuming, then, that insight may be acquired, 
we may proceed to consider its nature, its sources, 
and its fruits. This inquiry should enable us to 
pursue insight as an ideal. Looking first at the 
reasons why insight is not more widely sought, we 
note, in addition to man's subserviency to impulse, 
habit, and emotion, that there is widespread 
dependence on authority ; an erroneous conception 
of feeling, intuition, and all that pertains to the 
immediate side of man's nature ; also disparagement 
of intellectual processes such as analysis, judgment, 



248 Human Efficiency 

and reasoning. In so far as men are still creatures 
of impulse and habit, we must of course wait for 
a quickening experience to come before we can 
aid them to acquire insight. We ordinarily depend 
on authoritative leaders and creeds because of the 
assumption that makers of systems are so highly 
gifted as to belong to a distinct class. But when 
we discover that we have made use of our own 
powers for better or worse in making choice 
between leaders and creeds, we realise that all 
real advancement depends on the growth of the 
individual selfhood. If we have trusted ourselves 
sufficiently to select a teacher, a creed or church, 
we may well rely on our selfhood to the end. Fur- 
thermore, it is plain that all true authority is ra- 
tional, universal; and that we are free from special 
leadership in so far as we discern principles which 
stand in their own right. 

To throw off subservient acceptance of author- 
ity is, however, for many of us to enter into a 
new bondage through the belief that intuition is a 
gift or endowment superior to reason. This belief 
turns upon the assumption that original sentiments 
and experiences in general are of more worth than 
self-conscious acquisitions. The real enemy of 
spiritual enlightenment is the dogmatic assump- 
tion that the head is hostile to the heart. Firm in 
our desire to preserve the heart intact, we lapse 
into mere acceptance of emotion, impressions, 



Insight 249 

guidances, and intuitions, fearing to subject our 
inmost life to the scrutiny of the intellect. Thus 
the reasons for not acquiring insight resolve them- 
selves into arguments against the cultivation of 
individual powers of thought. 

Insight as I shall employ the term is illumined 
reason, a synthesis of intuition and other mental 
products with the finer processes of constructive 
thought. It begins in the life of feeling, hence we 
may look for its sources amidst such interests in 
psychical experiences as we find in our day. It 
advances from the level of mere impressions, pre- 
sentiments, leadings, and guidances to that of 
intuition, conscience, the inner light. It becomes 
more intellectual in proportion as it becomes 
philosophical. It is allied with sympathy, with 
love, and the other benevolent affections, hence a 
man grows in insight through the development of 
the altruistic life. Insight is an attainment rather 
than an endowment because however gifted no 
one really possesses insight until his faith and his 
leadings have met the varied tests of experience 
and constructive thought. What is imperative 
is a clue to the ideal elements in the cosmos, in 
events, in men, in experiences that tend to be- 
come moral and spiritual. He who possesses insight 
has a hope, a power to uplift and lead unsurpassed 
even by those who have a great measure of elemen- 
tal love. 



250 Human Efficiency 

Experience in general starts us on our way, 
gives us our incentives, stirrings, conflicts, duali- 
ties, finally our problems. At length ideals begin 
to stand out in contrast with the conservative 
side of our nature. To make genuine headway in 
attaining insight we need a theory of the human 
self which has overcome the old antithesis between 
the head and the heart. Psychology as we have 
already seen does not by any means confirm this 
popular antithesis. Even though in character one 
may be a Dr. Jekyll, and Mr. Hyde, the mind 
functions not through separate faculties but by 
means of processes. There is no organ or power in 
us which can produce an intuition or feeling as a 
die might produce a coin, granted the molten metal ; 
nor is conscience an inner voice which can hear 
in secrecy as if reason were forbidden to be present. 
An emotion even when experienced in the pre- 
sence of the most uplifting object in human life is 
a process into which the whole soul of the individ- 
ual enters for the time being, and the emotion is 
of value just so far as the whole personality contri- 
butes to it. Into an intuition though apprehended 
by the noblest woman in the land there enters 
whatever is in the woman whose organism pro- 
duces it, and its temper will vary with the tone 
of the personality. Conscience is a progressive 
quantity varying with the experience and thought 
of the one for whom it is at first a voice, in later 



Insight 251 

life a restraining sentiment, finally a process of 
rational reflection. The self that reasons is the 
same that has emotions, presentiments, and moral 
or religious experiences. With most of us mental 
consistency is still an ideal, but this does not alter 
the fact that our moods and mental states however 
fragmentary pertain to one mind. The terms 
"head" and "heart" are merely figurative expres- 
sions for phases of the same mental life. 

To say this is not to ignore that fact that when 
a person is spontaneous and free greater illumina- 
tions may come. The consensus of those best 
equipped to judge is that there is virtue in genuine 
childlikeness of heart, in humility, and in intui- 
tions that are allowed to reveal their pristine 
content; and there is no reason to gainsay this 
judgment. The term "heart," or "the spirit in 
man," has real meaning which no psychological 
analysis can take away. But to examine such 
terms is to find that the real contrast implied in 
them is not between the heart and the intellect 
but between inner and outer within the same 
personality. To be external in life, attached to 
worldly things, is to be external in emotion, judg- 
ment, character. To be quickened in spirit is to 
have the centre of interest transferred to the inner 
life. What we wish to eulogise is the inner centre 
which we would preserve untarnished and free. 
When that centre is found and known the intel- 



252 Human Efficiency 

lectual life will respond as readily as the emotional. 
He who is afraid of the head is afraid of himself, 
while he who is unwilling to submit a creed to the 
tests of criticism has no sure hold of the realities 
represented by it. A self-centred man will employ 
his head to show that all men are selfish, and that 
therefore the only resource is to renounce the 
intellect in favour of the emotions. The implica- 
tion is that the intellect is personal in an undesir- 
able sense whereas, as one disciple of the emotions 
put it, "feelings are from God." But analysis 
shows that feelings are far more personal than 
aught else in the inner life, while mere reliance on 
emotions tends to increase self-centredness, where- 
as reason lifts man's consciousness to the level of 
the universal. The difficulty is in the man himself 
who divides head from heart. As long as we hold 
that emotions or feelings alone come from God we 
are likely to remain inactive, waiting for God to 
bestow a compulsory feeling upon us, generate an 
incentive from within. But if we have learned 
that God quickens us through the understanding 
as well as through the will and the emotions, we 
know that at each juncture there is something for 
us to do, alternatives to face, choices to be made. 
One who should wait for God to give him a feeling 
that is, act for him, might indeed wait for ever. 
The contention that only emotions are divine 
in origin is a purely intellectual conclusion reached 



Insight 253 

through imperfect analysis and hasty generalisa- 
tion. The irony of the situation is that while one 
is apparently revering the emotions and discount- 
ing the intellect, one is indulging the intellect at 
the expense of the self. Moral insight begins with 
full acceptance of the inalienable fact of respon- 
sibility. However fragmentary we are, now tossed 
by passionate and fear-driven emotions, now 
slaves to instinct and impulse, with flashes of 
rationality between, it is incumbent on us to be 
upright, to be one, to be moral. The head and 
the heart are merely two among various phases of 
the inner life all of which are subject to the attitude 
a man maintains. It is a man's prevailing love 
that decides the case, and what he loves he will 
plead for. If a devotee of external things, mind 
and heart will make these seem worthy of every 
endeavour. If dedicated to a special theory of 
the subjective life, all the resources of the intellect 
will be brought to bear to prove a subjective life 
supreme. 

Instead of beginning with an exclusive proposi- 
tion, as if there were but one source of insight, it 
is more profitable to start with the assumption 
that everything in man may be a channel of 
guidance, from passion and instinct to the beatific 
vision. It then becomes a question of degrees of 
nearness to the divine, and of illuminating stand- 
ards. For there are no walls between our powers. 



254 Human Efficiency 

We cannot wholly check our thoughts while giving 
ourselves to an altruistic emotion or the moral 
will. It is a question of emphasis among elements 
and dispositions always present. What is needed 
is not a line of distinction between head and heart, 
but knowledge of the difference between experience 
and the interpretation of experience. For so long 
as one confuses the two one is like a house divided 
against itself. Interpret we must, we can by no 
means avoid it. The real resource is to interpret 
in earnest, distinguishing between the sources of 
experience and the mind through which they come, 
the character that underlies the mind and the 
goals to which experiences lead. Mere origin 
counts for extremely little; values, worths, ideals, 
count for very much. The function of insight is 
to disclose what is worth while, and to show what 
forces secure it. 

These distinctions become more plain when we 
analyse a term such as the "inner light' ' under 
which we symbolise certain of our spiritual powers. 
This term is not so philosophical as "insight," 
but marks a decided advance beyond the stage 
of emotionalism and all dependence on uncritically 
accepted impressions, sentiments, and instincts. 
As employed by the Friends and other believers in 
the indwelling Spirit, it does not stand for mere 
lucidity, clairvoyance, or any psychical power 
displayed under occult or uncanny conditions, but 



Insight 255 

implies a higher source of illumination through 
which divine guidances are revealed. Hence it is 
not a mere power of yielding to an influence, like 
mediumship, but one that implies aspiration to 
realise the self in highest measure. Receptivity 
to it involves discrimination between the various 
promptings of man's nature, the observance of 
certain conditions of silence, obedience, and will- 
ingness to follow. Its products are not mere re- 
collections, or like an uprush from the subliminal 
region revealing new combinations of experiences 
and thoughts. All these may enter in and be 
transfigured, indeed the disciple of the inner light 
inevitably contributes whatever resources there 
may be on hand. The significant consideration is 
acceptance of a standard such that one looks for 
inspiration that is very high and uplifting. The 
experience of recipiency therefore differs from the 
ecstasy of the mystics because it is temperate, re- 
strained, and the emotional union between human 
and divine is not blurred by pantheistic complica- 
tions. The inner light is not supernatural, aristo- 
cratic, the property of the elect; but is natural, 
democratic, universal, literally a centre of spiritual 
illumination to which any man at any time may 
take whatever experience or idea may arise in 
order that he may test it. In so far as divine it is 
the Christ in all men. In so far as human its 
activity implies temperament, a man's views of 



256 Human Efficiency 

human nature, human life, God, and the cosmos. 
It is akin to conscience, although not limited to 
essentially moral insights; believers in the inner 
light are ordinarily those who proclaim individual 
liberty of conscience. Its processes are similar 
to those which we usually describe as intellectual, 
but an intellectual process ordinarily proceeds by 
self-conscious stages, from fact or premise to con- 
clusion; whereas the inner light is more allied to 
feeling and quick flashes of thought. Again, we 
distinguish a person in whom this light shines by 
the life that results, the sweet serenity, the beauty 
of countenance, the peace-loving ways, and other 
modes of conduct that manifest the quietude or 
poise which prevails within. Such life we well know 
neither implies the possession of a peculiar faculty 
nor an exclusive type of experience, but mani- 
fests itself in the character of one who responds 
in actual deeds of thought and will to the guidances 
or power revered as divine. What is all this if not 
a thoroughgoing admission that emotions, head, 
heart, all the tendencies that constitute the inner 
life enter into these illuminations and their fruits? 
Now, the inner light may well be in some measure 
an endowment, such that everything depends 
upon the initial gleamings contrasted with the 
outer darkness of the senses, gleamings which in a 
responsive mind are permitted to grow. But the 
point is that the inner light is revealed through 



Insight 257 

growth, that the progressive function counts for 
more than the structure. Another important 
characteristic of its original estate is its power of 
survival even when the man in question is clouded 
by sensuous consciousness, apparently lost until a 
saviour comes who fans the mere spark once more 
into flame. What we are eager for is not the 
divine spark but the divine illumination which we 
believe will come when we let our light so shine 
that it shall fill manhood's mature life. 

The same principles are discoverable when we 
analyse intuition. An intuitive person is commonly 
one who takes the leaa when the facts and reasons 
are not as yet fully clear. Intuition appears in 
striking degree either in the case of those who are 
uncommonly pure and spontaneous or those who 
have great powers of self-abandonment. So far 
as consciously sought, an intuition is secured 
rather through interior listening than through 
inductive reasoning. Yet an intuition when 
verified displays the same content as a process of 
conscious thought. The intuitive element of our 
knowledge is akin to the faith which is the " sub- 
stance of things hoped for. " It connects our 
consciousness with the spiritually essential, the 
ideal goal; while the province of experience 
followed by reason is to test, hence to know and 
fully to possess. It is natural that an intuitive 
person should as life advances place more emphasis 
17 



258 Human Efficiency 

on detailed knowledge and the reasons therefor. 

We might say that the inner light is the effi- 
ciency while intuition is the product. The intuitive 
side of our nature as a whole is closely contiguous 
to its objects, so that when we discern an end or 
result intuitively we appear to be almost one with 
it. Out of this union comes the illuminating clue. 
There is every reason to revere the clue, allowing 
it to yield its full content, lead us as far as it can. 
Analysis and comparison rightfully begin when 
one has had the experience, reached the goal. 
Reason does not detract from, it adds to intuition. 
By insight one means the additional grasp of the 
situation which reason contributes through know- 
ledge of law, interpretation of experience. The 
man of insight has reached the stage of wisdom. 
If we revered wisdom more and mere experience 
less, we should more steadily pursue insight as an 
ideal. 

Another approach to the nature of insight is 
found when we compare various phases of the so- 
called spiritual life. Find a person who makes 
of the spiritual life a direct object of pursuit 
because of his subjective experiences and you will 
be apt to find one who is self-centred. We may 
indeed admire the earnestness of such a person, 
we may wish that all men displayed as much zeal. 
But what else do we say? That there will be no 
way to test the reality of the religious experiences 



Insight 259 

on which such a one places stress until the life of 
service begins. For reality is social, that is, is 
intelligible when scientifically interpreted, and the 
test of an unusual experience is its applicability 
to human needs. Hence we say, that if this man 
or woman who has been uplifted by a great 
spiritual emotion will come out of the subjective 
life, endeavour to meet people where they are, and 
undergo the contests which such associations 
bring, the contrasts will appear which show what 
is sound, and what is unsound in the subjective 
vision. 

This seems like a hard saying, this statement 
that one who thus makes the spiritual a personal 
aim is self-centred. Yet we are all the while 
judging people by this standard in our modern 
time. Without being fully aware w T hither our 
thinking has led us we have become converted 
to the general principle that sociality is the test 
of everything real and true. Hence we withhold 
commendation until we know what the life is. 
If the life be outgoing, if it be able to withstand 
the test of little events and tribulations, we say, 
"Thus far well and good. " But we are suspi- 
cious of that which a man keeps to himself because 
he esteems himself above others, because he deems 
his life peculiar, or regards it as a sign that he is 
saved. 

The spirituality that is sane and is worthy of 



26o Human Efficiency 

adoption as evidence of genuine insight, is co- 
ordinated with the rest of life, leads towards 
balance, reason. Here is a man, for example, who is 
working at a congenial occupation for a moderate 
sum, and is placed in fairly comfortable, happy 
surroundings. He does not pray on stated occa- 
sions or in any respect make a display of the inner 
life. The life of devotion plays its quietly moderate 
part, when he serves others he is unobtrusive, and 
a large part of the time he is absorbed in the 
natural interests which lie at hand. He does not 
make a living out of his spirituality but permits 
the spiritual to be a spontaneous growth. Not 
unduly introspective, he yet devotes a portion 
of his time to solitary thought. With him the 
spiritual life is a crowning result bestowed because 
many other ends are pursued. Such a man pos- 
sesses elements of insight which he can develop 
without first tearing down that he may rightly 
build. 

We sometimes say of the scholar, and even of 
the social worker, that he " lacks vision." But 
does this mean that he is temperamentally limited 
so that insight cannot be his? Say rather of him 
and of any specialist that if he will study life 
philosophically he can grow in knowledge of first 
principles, and first principles inspire insight. 
Practical workers are oftentimes well-equipped in 
their particular fields, but have not yet considered 



Insight 261 

the relation of such work to universal ideals. 
The social worker may never have studied the 
ethical ideals which have inspired men through 
the ages, but may be seeking the immediate with- 
out asking whither the immediate good shall lead. 
In other words, the practical worker usually lives 
in details. What is needed is scope, and scope 
of thought comes through study, hence is attain- 
able by all who are willing to think. 

Dedication to the fine arts leads to insight when 
the love of beauty becomes a universal interest. 
So long as the artist is a mere painter, sculptor, or 
musician, feeling after values, depending on what 
he calls "taste, " he remains local, like the social 
reformer who is a partisan. But when the love 
of beauty is lifted from the sensuous level to that 
of thought, and the kinship between the arts and 
the sciences is seen, then begins the dawning of 
insight. What discovery is more memorable in 
the entire range of aesthetic experiences and artis- 
tic productiveness than the vision of the unity 
of the true, the beautiful, and the good? Then 
the lover of fair forms and exquisite shadings is 
lifted out of the world of time into a region where 
he may readily pass to the truth-seeker's field 
and that of the disciple of righteousness, beholding 
what is essential, identifying it with his own ideals, 
although not himself a scholar or one who is quick- 
ened by zeal for souls. The insight of the artist 



262 Human Efficiency 

is always valued by lovers of the true and the good 
who are likewise children of the eternal, for all 
insight converges as we approach the universal. 

Thus insight is partly empirical, drawing upon 
the resources of a man's calling, and partly trans- 
cendental. The artist who possesses it knows how 
to lead the way from the imperfect forms which the 
eye beholds into the realm of the eternally ideal 
in such a way as not to neglect the things of earth 
for those of heaven. Music enables us most readily 
of all the arts to make the transition. But it is apt 
to leave the majority of people in the realm of 
feeling, and only in the case of the few does it 
lead to creative thought. 

Can it be said that large numbers of church 
members have attained the level of universal 
insight? It would seem not, since we find the 
world divided into multitudes of cults, and within 
each cult sectarian distinctions without limit. 
The accidents rather than the essentials are often 
counted as things of the Spirit, and we still find 
even the leaders maintaining that their church 
and theirs only is the door to salvation. But real 
salvation is to discern and possess the universal 
Spirit to which there are many approaches. He 
may be said to possess insight who beholds the 
reality symbolised by creeds, ceremonials, prayers, 
conversions, and theologies. He who possesses 
insight should be able to lead men into the univer- 



Insight 263 

sal, uplift them, reveal a vision. He will care 
little for doctrines or modes of worship, and insti- 
tutions, but will employ these as means to the 
great end. 

The greatest fruits of insight are discoverable 
in our relationship with individuals. He who can 
discern the heart, and call it forth into expression 
accomplishes more than any other. By such in- 
sight one does not mean neglect of the faults and 
adverse conditions by which a human soul is at 
present surrounded, one means understanding of 
all these and more, that remarkable power of love 
and sympathy coupled with the illuminating idea 
which clarifies the pathway of the soul. It is the 
difference between seeing all the parts in groups or 
in succession and seeing the whole. Hence it is 
not mere encouragement, optimism, charity, or 
judgment according to motives; it is an actual 
summoning of more or less dormant powers, a 
quickening into unity. It may call a person to 
judgment, so that he will be more aware of his 
failures than before, but only that through these 
the ideal may clearly stand forth. For insight is a 
power, it is creative. If like a lightning flash it is 
preceded by dark clouds, its light goes forth to 
reveal new possibilities, new beauties. Hence it 
inspires, thrills, transforming the dull prose of 
life into enticing poetry. 

We have all seen those quiet, thoughtful people 



264 Human Efficiency 

who move among their associates as if less social. 
At times they seem under great restraint, absorbed, 
remote, and we wonder Why they do not unbend 
and join with the rest. But see them at their 
true vocation and you realise what this remoteness 
means. With more charity, more sympathy, more 
love than you and I display, they associate with 
those whom we are inclined to despise and con- 
demn as if we were made of finer substance. It 
is not so much what they say as their manner, the 
attitude of power which they carry, the purity 
which inspires purity, the frankness which calls 
out frankness in return. In the presence and when 
looking into the eyes of such a one, the sinner will 
be moved to confess, but that is not the point. 
The significant factor is the belief in oneself which 
such a man inspires when, looking through the 
deeds and present traits of character to the end, he 
expresses the tenderness or utters the summoning 
word that lifts the soul into command, opens the 
way for a new beginning. 

What work in the world is more noble than this 
service in behalf of the ideal, a service which anni- 
hilates class-distinctions and makes all men akin? 
This is not " saving souls/ ' it is not a work that 
springs from anxiety, but has passed far beyond 
such elementary motives. Its disciple is at peace 
within, convinced that there is freedom for all. 
He is calm in attitude and in conduct, makes no 



Insight 265 

display, and is not in haste to convert numbers. 
He shows by his attitude and his wisdom that he 
too has met temptation and the tribulations of 
inward growth. Hence his is not the voice of mere 
innocence, although he may have preserved him- 
self unspotted from the world and may never have 
stooped to mean or self-seeking motives. One 
realises in his presence that he has command of 
higher powers, superior resources on which to draw. 
He refrains from mingling in many of the labours, 
amusements, and other activities of the world, 
not because he disdains these or dislikes those 
who are given over to them, but because he has 
found interests of such worth that if his fellow- 
men could but have the vision they would leave 
all and follow. It was said of one who had this 
remarkable power that while other men thought 
out systems of philosophy he " thought men," 
that is, saw what they could do as pioneers and 
inspired them to undertake their tasks. The 
Master, calling his twelve disciples as he meets 
them by the way, is the ideal exemplification of 
this summoning of those who are fitted to ac- 
complish a certain work. 

Would it be possible to give such a description 
of the fruits of insight were it not within our power 
to acquire it? Do we not let opportunities pass 
every day in which we might have believed in men, 
might have been loyal to the ideal for which they 



266 Human Efficiency 

are striving, might have loved, when we merely 
turned away or uttered dislike and condemnation? 
Is there one of us in whom consciousness of the 
ideal element is lacking? 

I hope I have shown that insight is a growth, 
that it increases from more to more in those who 
lay bare their problems before the inner light, who 
make the fullest use of intuition, who are true to 
the inmost promptings of the heart. For it must 
then be clear that we are not in any way cut off 
from the sources or deprived of the fruits of insight. 
The sources, I have said, may on occasion be any 
quality or power that is in us, even instinct or the 
restless emotions. For it is the whole personality 
that receives, and the whole personality may 
contribute. Insight begins and works within the 
sphere of the promptings or leadings which ally us 
with the life that is at hand. But it mounts from 
the elemental into the self-conscious, the critical 
and reflective, and is enriched by contests, experi- 
ence, and the strivings of the soul. It does not 
thrive long without love, hence it bears to the end 
an element of emotion, enthusiasm, or zeal, the 
quality of the heart which reaches forth with 
yearning, touches another soul with compassionate 
tenderness, and inspires considerateness at every 
turn. A man must keep close to humanity to 
grow into great insight, must know what is in men 
by being with them. Hence experience avails 



Insight 267 

more than mere gifts, and the more deeply a man 
has lived the greater will be his power. 

But I hope I have shown that insight is much 
more than this. To be spiritual it must yield 
visions of the eternal, the transfiguring unity out 
of which arise the beautiful, the true, and the good. 
It is possible for any one to attain the level of 
insight who, consecrating himself either to art, 
to science, or righteousness, endeavours to pursue 
his eternal ideal to the end. Sometime there is 
likely to dawn in the consciousness of all who are 
faithful the realisation that they are working for 
the ends that endure, portraying, thinking about, 
and displaying in conduct the supernal essence 
which underlies all moral and spiritual endeavour. 

It might be objected that we have placed too 
much stress upon growth or experience, and not 
enough on inheritance, capacity, gifts. But we 
have already cleared up these matters in our study 
of subconsciousness. Whatever capacity we may 
possess, whatever gift or genius, it begins to be a 
factor in our life when it is brought to the surface, 
when it becomes a factor in consciousness. We 
are in a sense potentially all that we ever become, 
but what concerns us is the expression, not the 
possibility. As merely potential, we are not yet 
teachers, leaders of men, artists, men of genius; 
it is "the occasion" that makes the man. There 
is no hidden reservoir of truth ready-made and 



268 Human Efficiency 

persuasively complete, no subconscious treasure- 
house in which all wisdom is stored. As great as 
our implicit treasures may be, we know nothing 
of them until experience calls them forth, supplies 
them with subject-matter, and makes them alive 
with meaning. As merely potential our native 
capacities and intuitive powers are forms merely, 
waiting to be filled. Truth is such when made 
concrete, practical. Genius is itself when at work. 
It might also be objected that the fruitions attri- 
buted to gradually acquired insight are merely 
due to the recovery of " ancient remains," to the 
recollection of wisdom developed in a previous 
existence, or to the later development of ideas 
put into our subconscious minds by the angels. 
The adoption of any one of these hypotheses would 
leave us in precisely the same state as that already 
described. What I have to deal with is the fruition, 
the idea that is true for me to-day. If there be 
14 ancient remains, " I recover them as essences 
that find confirmation only so far as I work them 
out afresh, and there would seem to be little rea- 
son for assuming that there is aught more than a 
capacity or latent power born with us. We need 
not explain on the hypothesis of a previous incar- 
nation what we can explain by experiences nearer 
at hand. If angels put ideas into our minds they 
become truths for us when worked out in the usual 
way as our own thoughts. It would seem more 



Insight 269 



probable that we are helped by a spiritual light 
that is turned upon us than by ideas put within 
us to work mysteriously. For we are creatures 
of will, of rationality, first of all, and we cannot 
accept or know an idea except as our own. Hence 
the seed-thought or guidance, whatever its source, 
conforms to the laws of ordinary processes of 
thought. Not until an idea wins our assent does 
it become a subconscious factor. The quick flashes 
of insight by which we survey a vast field of know- 
ledge at a glance are higher in type than those 
that are eulogised as innate or subconscious. The 
ideal is to attain the level of universal insight. 

To have insight in a universal sense is to have 
a philosophy, and of course one means idealism. 
For we have proved that insight becomes more 
intellectual as it advances. Our first insights 
are flashes, incentives, hopes that appear like 
rifts in the clouds then leave us to develop; the 
insight that abides is illumined reason, a third 
stage of mentality, higher than the immediacies 
of intuition, higher than the mere understanding. 
Hence by the term insight one means something 
more than the beatific vision, mystic enlighten- 
ment, or cosmic consciousness. For what we desire 
is to dwell in the land of promise, not alone to see 
it. We wish to understand, to comprehend, become 
masters, knowing the spiritual law and its uses, 
how to apply it and how to be free. So long as 



270 Human Efficiency 

I have merely had the vision, felt the ecstasy, or 
apprehended the cosmic moment in which I seem 
one with all being, I am likely to dwell on the experi- 
ence as especially mine, making too much of the 
subjective elements. Here nearly all mystics 
remain, hence we see why one who makes a special, 
ism of the spiritual life is essentially local, if not 
self-centred. Seership at its best is a means to an 
end. The ideal is to be a law unto oneself even in 
regard to the things of the Spirit. 

An experience is not possessed until rationalised, 
a thing or event is not understood until known in 
detail. The beatific vision may indeed give the 
illumination without which the intellectual life 
were naught. But the goal of insight is to gain the 
universal, and the universalising function of the 
self is reason. For there are not merely reasons for 
things, but Reason itself, the Being in whose mind 
our own minds are founded. To discover that there 
is a central Reality whose reason is the order, 
whose will is the motive power of the cosmos — 
this is to possess an idealistic insight which we may 
turn in any direction and find that it explains. 

The same insight that reveals the nature of the 
cosmos and gives the mind an idealistic principle 
which applies to all cases, is the insight that clari- 
fies the minds and hearts of men. Truly to know 
a man is to know him as idealism cognises, as a 
child of the cosmos that endures. The heavenly 



Insight 271 

love which is touched with outgoing compassion 
is identical with the knowledge which discloses yet 
unifies and sees far beyond. This union of the 
life of sentiment with the life of thought is much 
more than optimism, for ordinarily optimism is 
still hoping, achieving, while this insight has 
actually arrived. The same order that gives unity 
to the divine Self and to the cosmos can bestow 
it upon the finite self. It may not express its 
wisdom in deeply impressive tones but may come 
forth in an incidental remark. It matters little 
how the power is transmitted if so be that it is 
handed on. 

Spiritual insight, then, is an ideal attainment 
put within reach of all who gather the elements 
from the incidents of life and let them achieve 
fruition. Some of us regard a day as well spent 
if it bring one idea, one gleam of consciousness 
which unifies what it flashes upon. Mayhap you 
and I can adapt our lives so that each day shall 
bring both its insight and the means of applying 
it for the good of men. If we have lifted our con- 
sciousness to the heights and reckoned with such 
issues as this chapter suggests, we ought to be able 
to turn to the specific problems of human service 
equipped with knowledge which shows what is 
worth while. We should be able, for example, 
to give vocational advice, lead men into lines of 
reflection which will reveal them to themselves, and 



272 Human Efficiency 

call those with whom we become genuinely ac- 
quainted into power. For, once more, everything 
depends upon the standard, the goal. However 
deficient we may be in wisdom or experience, we 
inevitably judge by such wisdom as we have. 
Hence we may well observe the conditions which 
steadily lift us to higher levels of thought at the 
centre. 1 

1 In The Philosophy of the Spirit, New York, 1908, I have dis- 
cussed at length the theory of man's spiritual nature on which 
the above discussion is based. I have there shown that the empiri- 
cal element in intuition is merely immediate, while the content 
or value, is mediate, that is, essentially intellectual. The evi- 
dence as there given depends on a study of the higher experiences 
of the moral and religious life. 



CHAPTER XI 

A LAW UNTO ONESELF 

THE tendency of the preceding discussions has 
been to put more and more emphasis on the 
individual. We have dwelt on the co-ordinating 
powers of the self in contrast with the instincts 
and emotions which are commonly eulogised. 
We have rescued the self from the haziness in 
which popular beliefs immersed it by making so 
much of subconsciousness. Our study of the ener- 
gies which constitute the powers of the genuinely 
active man also added to the conviction that the 
conscious individual skilfully using his forces is 
the centre of efficiency. Hence our interest turned 
to the victorious will, the principles of success, 
the growth of character as a self-made product, 
and the adjustments of the man who wisely takes 
his opportunities. Finally, our study of insight 
broke down more of the barriers by which people 
gifted with intuition have been set apart from their 
fellows and proved that all men may acquire 
the inner vision which shows what is worth while. 

Our whole study of efficiency shows that far more 
is 273 



274 Human Efficiency 

depends on training and the summations of experi- 
ence than has been thought. The climax came 
with the conclusion that even insight is surpassed 
by the construction of an idealism which may be 
developed out of its finest products. 

Yet from the first we have been in sight of an- 
other principle. The intelligent man, we have 
pointed out, first asks, What are the conditions of 
life? What are my powers? How am I now living 
and working? What must I overcome in myself? 
Having asked these questions and made serious 
answer, he then proceeds through obedience to 
law, to nature, society, and the moral order, to 
organise his powers so as to gain the desired end. 
As much as he may make of himself it is with 
profound recognition of the fact that he is 
essentially a reactive social being, dependent at 
every turn. 

Nevertheless, it will be well for us to take as 
seriously as we can the belief that a man can be- 
come a law unto himself. For we are apt to cherish 
the notion that entire freedom shall some day be 
ours, without having seriously tried to analyse 
this conception to consider what true emancipa- 
tion means. We surely know already that it must 
be a question of interior conditions and self-know- 
ledge, and we have overcome the idea that freedom 
means liberty to do anything we like, as well as the 
dogma that no alternatives are open to us. Hence 



A Law unto Oneself 275 

the inquiry cannot fail to throw light on the 
conditions of our moral selfhood. 

Not to make the question too difficult, let us 
say that he is already in some sense a law unto 
himself who knows how to receive and act upon 
advice in such a way as to preserve individuality. 
Every one knows that advice is a subtle quan- 
tity, intermingled with political, financial, religious, 
or private considerations. Beset by conventions, 
and the mighty forces of conservatism, our first 
problem is to adjust ourselves to the imprisoning 
tendencies of our environment. Emerson assures 
us that society is a ''conspiracy against the man- 
hood of every one of its members, " and that 
1 ' whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist. ' ' 
He is free who is able either to adopt or discard 
conventionality. For example, in language we may 
conform to the standards of rhetoric and endeavour 
to speak the purest English, yet also adopt an 
occasional phrase from colloquial speech for the 
sake of spontaneity. 

If really free, we are able to throw off the modes 
of conduct and speech peculiar to our profession. 
To be human is to be more than an artisan, house- 
keeper, business man, or teacher, while dedicating 
a part of our activities to these vocations. Al- 
though a commonplace, it is necessary to reiterate 
the fact that to become mere creatures of our 
occupation, our creed, or prevailing habits, is ex- 



276 Human Efficiency 

ceedingly easy for most of us. We cannot fulfil 
even the secondary ideals of efficiency unless we 
cherish the determination to be human above all 
else. This is a matter that demands the most 
serious thought of every man and every woman, 
whether wage-earner, capitalist, manual labourer 
or brain-worker. It is the most vital issue in 
mental co-ordination, it is far more fundamental 
than the wise control of our energies, and it under- 
lies the law of success as ordinarily understood. 
Indeed, it implies the central question which we 
have raised from time to time as our inquiry pro- 
ceeded, What is worth while? Have we the power 
to labour, to serve, yet to achieve the high ends 
which ennoble the soul and make it a thing of 
dignity, of beauty, and of power? 

For the woman, the determination to be human 
means, for example, the preservation of those 
qualities which we denominate "feminine, " not 
when we praise ideals of chivalry of a bygone 
time, but when we revere the sister, the wife and 
mother as representatives of an eternal element of 
supreme worth. If the woman is unmarried and a 
wage-earner, this means intelligent adaptation to 
the conditions of society as they exist to-day so as to 
guard against numberless subtle temptations and 
ambitions. If married, it calls for an ideal of home- 
life which transcends and conquers any interest 
that tends to draw the wife away from the home 



A Law unto Oneself 277 

to the neglect of its obligations, its blessings, and 
its joys. If a mother, the ideal becomes of supreme 
importance, since the fulness of life is implied. 
But if understood, if the ideal of motherhood be 
supreme, other relationships can be adjusted to it 
in such a way as to add while never interfering. 
For example, there are relationships to society 
at large and near at hand, and to the world of 
affairs. If the mother is also a wage-earner this 
function is naturally a means of support to the 
domestic relationship at its best, hence it is not 
permitted to foster interest in business as such 
to the neglect of the tender emotions. If an artist, 
social leader, or reformer, these interests will 
naturally be subordinate to but ever inspired by the 
life of the home. That is, the true woman is not 
first a reformer, and then a woman ; she is first a 
woman, then a devotee of a given line of reform 
tending to give greater freedom to women in a 
wise sense while also securing genuine equality 
between the sexes. Likewise she is first a home- 
maker, and then a painter, sculptor, or singer, 
never permitting the household to lapse into dis- 
order under the pretence that beauty can be won 
in the world of art when lacking in the life. If the 
relationship be reversed, she either becomes a 
mere creature of her external interests and occupa- 
tion, or domestic unhappiness results. Too fre- 
quently in our time these high standards are 



278 Human Efficiency 

sacrificed and the wife departs into new fields of 
interest supposably promising to make her free 
while really enslaving her. 

For men the question is no less complex and 
serious. One can hardly make this statement 
without realising that so many interests in the 
commercial world, in club and professional life, 
are allowed to intrude that it is impossible to 
single out large numbers of men who are essentially 
human. It is human no doubt to err, and to be 
subservient to any number of faulty characteristics. 
In another sense of the word it is human to make 
one's business an end in itself. But the term 
" human' ' as employed in the present discussion 
involves the preservation of all that is manly in 
the higher sense. Numberless enticements enter 
a man's life that conflict with the best he finds 
himself capable of being as husband, father, friend. 
Without undertaking to define true manliness, or 
limiting that which is human one emphasises the 
importance of having a standard by which to 
estimate every factor in life. Thus a man's 
evenings, his recreations, vacations, and intel- 
lectual diversions will be affected by his prevailing 
love or purpose in life. 

From another point of view, it is a question of 
being human in a sense which transcends the 
distinctions of sex while never running counter 
to the ideals of chastity, domestic life, manliness, 



A Law unto Oneself 279 

the eternal feminine. There is a respect in which 
a woman is more than a wife or mother, a man 
more than a husband or father. The truest love 
inspires a new relationship to the entire cosmos, 
gives a new freedom, and makes one a free spirit 
in the best sense. It is love above all that renews 
the individual and calls forth all that is spiritually 
human. Thereupon many secondary lines of free- 
dom grow out of the central relationship. The 
free man not only remains a child at heart, but is 
at liberty to play as if still a child. 

He is not ashamed to weep with those who are 
sorrowful, nor to sing with those who are for the 
first time tasting the greater joys of life. He lives 
his youthful days over again in contemplation 
of the vigorous activities around him. Thus he 
retains a sort of independence of space and time. 

Again, we are free if not under allegiance to 
the give-and-take theory of social obligation. To 
make a genuine gift I should be thinking of the 
one whom I am able to serve, of the joy of giving 
as a general principle. One need not give on 
stated occasions, or even to the class of people 
from whom gifts have come. If I give with the 
expectation of receiving, or the hope of promoting 
my own welfare, I am a creature of mere conven- 
tion. Real gifts spring from the self, and bear the 
stamp of individuality. What I can best give no 
one can duplicate. Nor can a man rob me of my 



280 Human Efficiency 

power or its issues. If a man be aware of his power 
to give and the duties it imposes, he is little likely 
to have time to meet the exactions of mere ob- 
servers of good form. 

There are many ways of showing freedom through 
speech. One may choose one's forms of greeting 
and address, one's own expressions of gratitude 
and affection. Among friends it is a pleasure to 
depart from precise modes of speech, and intro- 
duce words from other languages, make one's 
own word-combinations, diminutives, and coinages. 
To address the most intimate companion of the 
heart with "thee" and "thou" is to add new 
reverence and beauty to love's speech. A delight- 
ful spirit of play can be expressed through language, 
a spirit that ever seeks new forms of expression 
yet as steadily clings to phrases which the heart 
has made dear. So much depends upon a word, 
uttered by chance or with deliberation, that one 
may well consider how to preserve the finest, 
freest speech, letting the words ripen with the 
years, never departing from a gentle courtesy yet 
ready to break into untried forms. Mere license 
to say anything you like is not freedom, for true 
freedom never forgets the other party. The free 
man is frank, but his speech aspires towards an 
ideal. 

Frankness invites frankness, and one of the joys 
of freedom is the power one has to invite other 



A Law unto Oneself 281 

souls into expression. Many a man and woman 
hungers for the companionship which perfect 
frankness offers, and the unburdening of the heart 
is a genuine need of human nature. Confession, 
too, has its place. The function of the "free 
spirit' ' is to set others free, and frankness is often- 
times the beginning. He who can unqualifiedly 
tell us precisely what he thinks is able to do us 
a great service. The right word has enormous 
power, speaks to the soul, and makes self-expression 
possible. Sincerity follows close upon frankness, 
and while it may not be the highest of the virtues 
it is essential to complete freedom and faithful 
service. 

In business life this freedom is expressed in 
departure from mere self-interest and tradition, 
by giving "full measure, running over. " True 
freedom enters the business realm with disinterest- 
edness. The moral man of affairs realises that 
it is his privilege to serve, hence he keeps the wel- 
fare of associates and customers steadily in view, 
has the courage to permit humane interests to 
stand above sordidness. 

In education he is a law unto himself who, either 
as student or teacher, is able to branch out in 
accordance with general principles, verify or change 
them in his own way. So long as one is subser- 
vient to a system, one is never a devotee of educa- 
tion at its best. The free devotee understands 



282 Human Efficiency 

the value of the standards preserved in the great 
institutions, and does his part to be true to the 
best that tradition offers from the classic past. 
Yet, in a new age and in the presence of fresh per- 
sonalities, he adapts his methods and his thought 
to altered conditions, knowing that he must show 
his mastery if at all by explaining new phenomena, 
solving recent problems. He must rise above yet 
assimilate the spirit of his own institution, showing 
his loyalty to ideals yet unattained as surely as in 
behalf of the best that now is. 

In friendship there is a capital opportunity for 
the maintenance of standards while preserving a 
spontaneity that sometimes surpasses all bounds. 
No one is more dependent at times than the friend, 
yet this dependence at its best is accompanied by 
a freedom that grows in accordance with ideals 
of individuality. Such relationships may indeed 
be far from free in certain stages of their develop- 
ment. But the ideal is perfect mutuality, the full 
self-expression of each, fostered by the most 
considerate love. Mutual adaptation with this 
high ideal in view is possible where there is under- 
standing of the forbearance needed along the way. 

Sometimes friends undertake to attain this end 
by making a hobby of freedom, cutting themselves 
from the world, glorying in their escape from obli- 
gation. The result is unfettered expression of 
every prompting and sentiment within the per- 



A Law unto Oneself 283 

sonality. But to make freedom an end in itself 
is to pass to the other extreme and incur new 
bondages of a peculiarly strenuous sort. Freedom 
is attained by pursuing a purpose that is ennobling. 
If I love my associates I need not guard every 
action for fear that I am not granting them liberty 
to be themselves. The way to receive freedom 
from others is to be free in spirit. It is more import- 
ant to grant freedom than to seek it. Really to 
grant it is no small accomplishment, requiring 
a large-minded attitude. If I steadily grant it to 
my fellows they in turn will accord liberty to me. 
Freedom is not strictly speaking an end in itself 
but is one of the fruits of the efficient life. 

The free man preserves a certain independence 
not only of what people say but of what they are 
likely to think. On occasion he is impelled to 
break from tradition and become a pioneer, well 
aware that his action will be condemned and that 
he will be misjudged. Convinced that his initia- 
tive is right, he is willing to cast in his fortunes 
with righteousness, and take whatever consequences 
may come. Again, his courage is seen in readiness 
to be inconsistent, if need be, whatever flaws may 
be found in his statements. For his loyalty is to 
truth, not to verbal consistency. 

The free man need not, however, make radical 
departures from custom, cultivate peculiar ways 
and odd habits of dress, to prove his independence, 



284 Human Efficiency 

We are assuming that the one who is a law unto 
himself is a man of understanding, and one of the 
first principles he is likely to know is the law of 
evolution. Being wise he realises that to take the 
next step in improvement is better than to go 
apart and be peculiar. The greatest strength is 
shown in fidelity to high ideals amidst people who 
do not hold them, and who can be led only by 
persuading them to take the next step. 

Our study of efficiency has shown that one of the 
hardest lessons in respect to our social relation- 
ships is to be willing to allow our fellows to live 
their life. Convinced that our creed in politics, 
in religion, in regard to life generally, is the true 
one, we foolishly try to impose it upon others. 
Again, we cherish a favourite plan for educational 
or social reform, and deem it our duty to go forth 
on proselyting missions. We forget Emerson's 
reminder that " Nature never rhymes her children/ ' 
and that we should cease trying to make others 
like ourselves since " one's enough.' ' Really to 
possess the spirit of freedom would be to recognise 
that as each man is an individual the best service 
one can be to him is to aid him to express himself. 
To adopt this attitude towards our fellows some 
of us are compelled to undergo a radical change, 
to overcome cocksureness and disagreeable self- 
assertion, to transmute all our domineering ten- 
dencies, overcome our conceits. This done, the 



A Law unto Oneself 285 

next task is to learn through faithful observation 
the real characteristics of our fellows, to discover 
whither they are tending and how we may effectively 
aid them. Surely, no man should expect to be a 
law unto himself unless willing to grant the same 
privilege to others. The stronger the character, 
the more pronounced our views, the more difficult 
for us to grant this privilege; for, highly endowed, 
capable of leadership, we readily assume that ours 
is the right way. The implied assumption is that 
we are uncommonly gifted, so fortunate as to 
possess original insight; others are privileged to 
be our disciples. But a true sign of greatness is 
recognition of others. The genuine leader knows 
that at best his life is an example, that others must 
develop in their way what he has seen as a pioneer. 
For the great man every soul in the universe counts 
as one, and is welcomed as a child of God. No 
class-privileges exist in the world of eternal values. 
Are we then to sacrifice private convictions, 
zeal for special causes, eagerness to convert the 
world? Should we cease to concentrate upon a 
special interest? Surely not, but my zeal is best 
shown through concentrated endeavour to develop 
my convictions to the full, to live by them, hence 
to teach by example. When my development has 
reached a point where others take interest, I may 
well respond in heartiest fashion. I shall be most 
likely to aid those whose thought tends towards 



286 Human Efficiency 

my own. Granted an interested audience, or one 
that is willing to hear, I may well make my doc- 
trine as persuasive as possible, putting my whole 
heart into my utterance. But if I really have the 
welfare of my fellows at heart, I shall not resort 
to the devices of the spectacular orator, but force- 
fully state my case in rational terms, leaving my 
hearers free to accept or discard. Only through 
appeal to reason can I expect to make normal 
converts, for if personal powers win people before 
their time there will inevitably be a reaction. My 
part as a public teacher is to state universal princi- 
ples so clearly that each may make application 
for himself. If I stimulate my listener to make the 
subject his own, I thereby aid him to become a law 
unto himself. 

These are particularly hard sayings with respect 
to religious matters, for there are many in the world 
so devoutly persuaded that they have the only 
true creed that it is a delicate matter to insist on 
the standards of universal reason. Yet one is 
unable to make an exception. The chief difficulty 
rests in the fact that the proselyters and highly 
confident people fail to realise that in the last 
analysis their appeal is to individual experience. 
Believing that they are humbly sustaining biblical 
and ecclesiastical authority, it seems plain that 
the personal equation is thrown wholly out of 
account. But press them for conclusive evidences 



A Law unto Oneself 287 

that their creed is the true one, and they fall back 
on inner experience, telling what the sacraments 
have meant to them, how much they have been 
comforted by the prayers, what upliftments they 
have enjoyed. Tacitly, these experiences are 
brought forward and put over against yours as 
the real grounds for faith, hence the appeal is as 
personal in the one case as in the other. The 
difference is that the proselyter in his uncritical 
acceptance has not gone so far in the process of 
becoming a law unto himself. He does not yet 
know that a truth becomes such for you or for me 
through individual verification, that without con- 
firmatory experience the highest authority counts 
for naught. He who counsels you to make nothing 
of your own will, to set your intellect aside and 
simply believe, does not realise that he employs 
will and reason to confute you. 

It is inevitable that each should accept and inter- 
pret religious matters for himself. The prime con- 
sideration is undoubtedly the heavenly order that 
is over all. But no one can expect to apprehend 
that order as it really is until aware of the per- 
sonal equation. Like the prejudices and precon- 
ceptions that hinder the progress of science, 
private opinions in matters of religion are often 
a great hindrance. But religion is much more 
personal than science, and the positive considera- 
tion is the fact that each man in apprehending in 



288 Human Efficiency 

his own fashion also contributes his share. Reli- 
gion if true is true for me and should aid me to 
understand my experience and live my life. I do not 
grasp the ideas of God, freedom, and immortality, 
until I reflectively develop them for myself. Nor 
do I understand the incarnation or the atonement 
until I see in what sense God is born within my 
soul. 

Jesus always put the burden on the individual, 
counselling him to go and do likewise, to take up 
his cross and follow in the pathway of labour and 
service. Thus in the sphere of religion the individ- 
ual necessarily stands at the centre. He it is who 
has erred, behaved himself in unseemly fashion, 
unduly self-assertive. He it is who must repent, 
turning from his selfishness to a life of obedience 
to the divine will. By living through the experience 
he knows its reality and significance. If well 
aware of what he has passed through, he under- 
stands that the process pertains to human nature, 
that he has made use of universal laws. Hence 
he knows that the significance of revelational 
authority is to bring men into awareness of the 
powers they already possess. He who begins to 
become a law unto himself by thus universalising 
the process is truly able to aid others. 

To be a law unto oneself in religion means to 
discover original sources, turn directly to God, 
and find heaven. So many conventions, presup- 



A Law unto Oneself 289 

positions and beliefs stand in the way that one is 
well-nigh disheartened at times. Authority has so 
skilfully entrenched itself that almost every con- 
tingency has been anticipated. Ordinarily the 
only hope lies in the inner dissatisfactions of those 
who can no longer be contented with mere author- 
ity. When questions and doubts arise, the out- 
sider may offer a word cf cheer and promise. The 
process of emergence well under way, it seems 
strange indeed to the sometime slave of authority 
that men and women can so long be kept from the 
truth. 

Rationally speaking, nothing seems more natural 
in the world than the direct relationship of each 
son of man to the heavenly Father. In actuality 
that relationship must ever be intimate and strong, 
or human beings could not subsist, but how many 
are the ways in which we deny Him! Possessing 
all the powers needed for awareness of the divine 
presence, we nevertheless stand aloof until some 
unwonted circumstance sets us partly free. What 
is required is an incentive sufficiently strong to 
enable us to gather the facts of inner experience 
and begin to search for their ground. Ordinarily 
one makes little headway in understanding reli- 
gion until one acquires a philosophy of life. 

At this point one is reminded of the question of 
genius versus orthodoxy so often discussed. The 
discerning man is able and willing to confess at 
19 



290 Human Efficiency 

once that genius and orthodoxy are incompatible. 
But genius in the rationalistic sense is merely a 
forerunner of universal reason. He who thinks 
for himself has already begun to part company 
with the strictly orthodox. To be orthodox is to 
belong to the childhood of the world. Orthodoxy 
is no doubt a necessary stage for many, yet ortho- 
doxy is no virtue. Really to be virtuous is to be 
true to individual conscience, hence the period of 
the reformation is inevitable. In so far as I possess 
talent, in so far as I am an individual, the rights of 
my genius are supreme, and I may well break free 
and begin creative work. The movement of human- 
ity is not towards conformity but towards differ- 
entiation. Even when a man is still classified as 
orthodox it is necessary to specify what princi- 
ples he stands for. The further a man emerges the 
more reason for stating what he individually 
believes. The time will come when each shall be 
known for what he is in his own right. 

The man who is in earnest in the endeavour to 
become a law to himself is never a time-server, 
but already possesses intimations of immortality 
through knowledge of eternal values. He is in the 
world but not of it, although becoming more 
humane with the lapse of years. He is never a 
mere specialist in any field, but endeavours to 
know something about everything while seeking 
mastership in his chosen sphere. Consequently 



A Law unto Oneself 291 

he varies the form of his work, perhaps changes 
his habitat or country. On principle he takes a 
vacation from every relationship, even social and 
religious, that he may keep fresh, strong, pure. 
He not only visits foreign parts, attends other 
churches and social gatherings, but listens even 
to the heathen, endeavouring to find out why they 
are condemned as heathen. 

Above all, to be a law unto oneself means to be a 
philosopher. This development is apt to begin 
with scientific reflection on the nature of things, 
but may be as well understood with reference to 
ethical principles. I am a law unto myself when 
I recognise, with Kant, that as a moral being I am 
a law-giver, I impose the moral law on myself. 
Inasmuch as a moral act is essentially my own act, 
I am independent and free. The law which I give 
myself is indeed the universal law under which all 
men have their being, yet it is real and true for me 
by virtue of my freedom. The moral law is over 
me, with its august supremacy, like that of the 
starry sky, hence I attribute it to a Being who is 
mightier than I. Moreover, when I do a moral 
deed I will that the law of my righteous conduct 
shall be universally observed. Still in the pre- 
cincts of my selfhood this great law is made known. 
When I do right it is by my own freedom. My will 
to do right is wholly good in itself. I am not under 
compulsion, but am expressing the mandates of 



292 Human Efficiency 

my nature. Thus I am a law unto myself in the 
best sense of the word. 

Yet in stating this we have already passed 
beyond the proposition that man can be a law 
unto himself. In truth, no man is sufficient unto 
himself. Consequently one turns from the bare 
forms of the Kantian ethic to the kingdom of 
social ends which Hegel and others have more 
fully developed. Once more I am reminded of my 
dependence. Virtue becomes fully itself when 
socially realised. Unless I go forth into the domain 
of controversies, problems, and social struggles, 
I shall be unable to keep or develop my subjective 
possessions. Fellowship with others will soften 
the rude outlines of my rigorous selfhood, relieve 
me of my peculiarities, render me fit for service. 
The tests of sanity are social. Subjectivity must 
complete itself through objectivity. It is the 
universal moral self that is a law. 

The universe reproduces or mirrors itself in my 
consciousness and there is a sense in which my 
apprehension of it is unique. Unless I have met 
the dilemmas of self-consciousness I can hardly 
be said to be free in a philosophical sense. I must 
somehow have passed through a transition similar 
in intent to the Kantian criticisms of the nature 
of reason in order to enter the universal region of 
thought. For I must know how to make allow- 
ances for the equations of personality as a whole, 



A Law unto Oneself 293 

know in what sense the understanding " creates " 
its world. The subjective factors well in hand, I 
shall be in a position to consider the concepts of 
human experience in systematic order and proceed 
with constructive thought in all directions. He is 
philosophically free who is able to make these 
allowances, who is undisturbed by the sharp fires 
of criticism. 

For in a profound sense what is real in the cosmos 
is real for all. Despite the fact that we know 
reality through the conditions of interior selfhood 
and its constructions, the fact of knowledge is not 
the primary consideration. Philosophy cannot 
complete its undertaking until it give back reality 
as it exists for all in the realm of conduct. The 
primary fact is that the world exists for all, that 
it possesses a nature such that we all apprehend 
essentially the same cosmos, despite the inter- 
vening conditions of human nature and the fluc- 
tuations of the personal life. The ideal is a 
completely scientific conception of the cosmos, 
conforming as far as possible to the canons of 
the natural sciences. 

In one's philosophical growth it is inevitable 
that one should place less reliance on theoretical 
prepossessions, more on knowledge of fact and 
valid inductions therefrom. This transition is well 
seen in matters of religion. We begin with reliance 
on an authoritative system, and the factors of 



294 Human Efficiency 

individual experience seem to count for naught 
save as they give evidence of sin. In mere man 
there appears to be little hope ; all depends on the 
divine grace. In due course we realise that the 
divine grace is a general principle, hence that 
something depends on the human responses and 
adjustments. Then it becomes a question of 
verification of religious truth, and little by little 
more emphasis is put on inner experience. In due 
time a new structure is reared on the experiences 
rejected during the years of allegiance to authority. 
We then realise that only through experience can 
we hope to find God or achieve heaven. Thus we 
begin to become masters of the situation and to 
relate our thought to the thought of the ages. To 
be independently philosophical is to be able to 
give a rational account of this process and its 
deliverances. Only those who give up the task 
as beyond human possibility drop back into the 
hands of authority. They become free who grasp 
the meaning of this process or transition. 

Those who thus attain rational self-conscious- 
ness naturally ask, What can I add to the world's 
thought and thereby attain full self-expression? 
That is to say, the ideal of self-realisation emerges 
with new power. Hence I must know which one 
of the many gifts that spring from the same Spirit 
is mine. For I am little likely to attain fulness of 
being by proceeding at random. I can hardly 



A Law unto Oneself 295 

become master of my powers without realising 
that there is something especially within my power. 
Granted knowledge of that, there is nothing that 
should stand in the way, since the ideal that will 
most fully round my being into self-expression 
will also be most contributory to the welfare of 
my fellows. 

There is a sense in which God and I exist alone 
together. Crises come in life when the soul, 
having listened to the best words of critics and 
friends, must take the matter in hand into the 
divine solitudes, assuming full responsibility for 
the decision, implicitly depending on the Father 
for the fulfilment of the promise thus sacredly 
made. For once again the greatest freedom is 
found through fullest dependence. When I realise 
that of myself I can do nothing, I am most com- 
pletely a law unto myself. Into my being at such 
times a conviction comes which I am willing to 
put over against everything to the contrary that 
men may utter. At such times there appears to be 
no separateness between the Father's will or pur- 
pose for me and my own ideal. I will to do the 
work my Father has for me to do and in so 
willing I am free. 

The possibility of being a complete individual 
is thus explained by the fact that my selfhood is 
made in the image and likeness of God. There is 
a point at which human and divine coincide or 



296 Human Efficiency 

correspond. What I can best do my Father wishes 
me to do, and the channel is open before me. It 
is His power that prepares the way, His wisdom 
that guides, His love that prompts. My selfhood 
is an organic part of His total purpose for humanity 
and harmonises with the rest so that what I do as 
a law unto myself does not deprive others of a 
similar possibility. Granted social knowledge of 
this organic r elatedness in the divine selfhood, 
and the brotherhood of man would be here in 
earnest, the heavenly kingdom would have come. 

The above principles contain the answer to 
objections that might be raised by theological and 
other critics to the effect that in pleading for in- 
dividual efficiency we are overlooking the fact 
that there is but one Efficiency. It is understood 
as our first premise that God is supreme, the central 
reality and power; that all existence manifests His 
purposes, shares His life. But this understood, it 
is a question of human society and of the worth 
of each individual. The purpose implicit within 
each man is God's purpose, the guidances are from 
God, the incentives divine. But in each case there 
is the opportunity for rejection or response. Hence 
in each case there is a sense in which each makes 
himself what he is by meeting the opportunities 
which life affords. 

By the above principles we also guard against 
the possible rejection of guidances or insights that 



A Law unto Oneself 297 

come more directly from the divine mind. For 
although we have concluded that all intuitions 
are mediated to us through the conditions of our 
own selfhood we do not by any means deny that 
God has direct access to us. What we point out is 
that when known by us the divine life takes form 
according to the conditions of our development. 
Hence there is every reason to study the subject 
with all seriousness that we may be able to make 
the true interpretation. There is a respect in 
which the judgment of each individual is somehow 
final for that individual. We all decide to make 
the venture, take the leading on faith. The fact 
that we become individually responsible does not 
exclude us from being recipients of the highest 
guidances. This possibility of direct openness to 
the divine love and wisdom will become clearer 
when we consider the two highest qualities in the 
human mind, love and the understanding. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE NATURE AND SCOPE OF REASON 

THROUGHOUT our investigation we have 
turned more and more to the life of thought 
as the one unfailing resource. This tendency began 
with the recognition of qualitative distinctions, as 
opposed to the mere efficiency of the hand or of 
the world of time. On the physiological side, this 
involved an unpleasant limitation at first, since 
we were compelled not only to admit the differ- 
ences in cerebral capacity which divide men into 
first-class and average workmen, but to acknow- 
ledge the dependence of the mind upon the brain. 
Moreover, we had to emphasise the fact that the 
majority of people are almost incurably creatures 
of instinct, passion, habit, and emotion. Never- 
theless, we saw that for everybody, however con- 
stituted there are possibilities of self-knowledge, 
training, and mental co-ordination. We admitted 
the lowliness of human nature, its inertias and 
bondages, that we might be free to give full recog- 
nition to the powers that conquer. With the 
conclusion that the centre of power is out in the 

298 



Nature and Scope of Reason 299 

daylight of consciousness, not concealed below 
the level of intellectuality, our inquiry assumed a 
hopeful turn which it has not lost. From that 
point on we placed increasing emphasis on know- 
ledge, the power of control through genuine insight, 
supplemented by wise regulation of the energies 
thus brought into more intimate command. The 
chapter on work confirmed this emphasis by show- 
ing that all work in the best sense is due to mastery 
of the brain, hence of the power of thought which 
uses the brain as an instrument. 

On first thought, the will might seem to be inde- 
pendent of the intellect, hence in alliance with 
the desires and emotions. This we acknowledged 
was indeed true originally, and remains true of 
those who do not pass beyond self-will. But the 
further we carried our study of the will the more 
intellectual the will became. For although many 
of the acts of attention by which the will is deter- 
mined are external, sensuous, or otherwise enslav- 
ing, the will is called forth by higher objects as 
well, hence by ideas and therefore in the end by 
reason. The will that proves worthy of survival, 
worthy of freedom and of the moral life, is the 
rational will. In other words, reason is another 
and larger term for that mental activity which, 
known earlier as desire, mounts through the con- 
flicts of the will and gradually attains strength as 
the basis of character. Accordingly, our inquiry 



300 Human Efficiency 

turned to the question of success through charac- 
ter, with the result that we placed still more empha- 
sis on intellectual factors. Our analysis of insight 
overcame certain beliefs which might militate 
against full acceptance of the intellect, since un- 
critical faith in intuition implies a sort of rivalry 
in behalf of mere feelings and impressions. In- 
sight, we saw, is really the intellect emerging into 
power. Hence while we did not deny any of the 
gifts of intuition we sought to pass beyond the 
stage of mere immediacy to that of real knowledge. 
Finally, we saw that a man does not begin to be a 
law unto himself until he turns to the original 
sources of life and power, and thinks for himself. 
The power of reason, in short, is that power where- 
by man overcomes the bondages of his finitude and 
rises to the level of the universal. 

Reason is man taking thought concerning the 
nature of things and behaving as a son of God. 
While merely a creature of desire, he is bent on 
attaining his own will, and it is difficult to separate 
even the highest desires from merely personal 
motives. The emotions are personal to the last 
limit, even when love is attaining the level of 
unselfishness. The will is ordinarily the man in 
a decidedly limited sense. But reason is universal, 
signalises the fact that man has become disinteres- 
ted, that he understands the laws of things, en- 
deavours to adjust his conduct with the moral will 



Nature and Scope of Reason 301 

of the universe. Man as a moral individual is 
indeed moral reason giving the law unto himself, 
proving himself worthy of the will that is wholly 
good. 

So many objections to the intellectual life are 
raised in all quarters that it is necessary to be most 
explicit, even at the risk of stating much that is 
perfectly obvious when our attention is called to it. 
Every now and then, when the victory of reason 
seems assured, some one will devise a new form of 
sensationalism, herald a fresh return to uncritical 
authority, or endeavour to show the futility of all 
human concepts by falling back on blind faith, or 
appealing to traditional arguments in favour of 
agnosticism. Thus the way of reason is hard, how- 
beit every opponent who takes arms against it is % 
really preparing the way for the greater victory 
yet to be. 

In so far as these objections imply the assump- 
tion that the intellect or reason is a faculty separate 
from the rest of mental life, as if arrayed against 
the heart, the feelings, and intuition, the simple 
and decisive answer is already clear from the pre- 
ceding chapters. There is one mind consisting 
of various processes involving differences of em- 
phasis. Hence the intellectual processes are as 
dependent as the instincts, desires, emotions, and 
the will on the subject-matter supplied by experi- 
ence. The intellect has no separate or private 



302 Human Efficiency 

access to reality, hence no grounds for rival claims. 
It is simply a later phase of mentality within the 
same group of processes. It comes into view with 
the power of reflective choice, of sustained 
attention, and co-ordination with a view to at- 
taining ends. The chief difference is that instead 
of taking experience merely as it comes, judging 
by the appearance, reason analyses, compares, 
brings into order, restates in terms of law, has the 
power to arrive at new results. Hence it is properly 
contrasted with feeling in so far as the mind through 
its power rises above the presented, looking before 
and after in search of meanings. The latest pro- 
cess to appear in the order of development, it is 
naturally most misunderstood, most hindered and 
thwarted in its development. The objections to 
its leadership are due to the vicissitudes of the 
individual in his long evolution into reason, 

For example, it is sometimes said that the intel- 
lect is cold, abounds in pride and selfishness, hence 
is the weapon of disagreeable aristocrats. The 
answer is that everything depends on the man, 
his temperament, the sources of his experience, 
his type of thought. If cold, proud, selfish, these 
qualities are in the man, and will be expressed 
through everything he does. A man's intellect 
"stands in his light " only so far as his information 
is narrow, his intellect not broadly cultivated. 
That which is spiritual must indeed be spiritually 



Nature and Scope of Reason 303 

discerned, the province of the intellect being to 
study that which experience has revealed. But 
this is true in all departments of life. Not until 
you have the experience are you entitled to explain 
it. If you accept it on another's authority, that is 
because your general state of mind permits you to 
do so. To gainsay the intellect you must employ 
the intellect itself, since every possible pro- 
position which human lips can utter is necessarily 
intellectual. Therefore it is merely a question of 
the one who is most enlightened, of the one who 
reasons best. Granted a change of heart, the intel- 
lectual life will then take its clue from the new 
enlightenment. 

It is true some men have apparently discredited 
the intellect by undertaking to disprove various 
matters in advance of experience, or prove a 
doctrine for which they have had merely theoretical 
evidence. But few of us would make such an 
attempt if we paused to consider. We have been 
mistaken too many times to venture to assign the 
limits of possibility before we have had experience. 
It is plain that the only way in which we truly 
know is through experience. Hence the province 
of reason is to do its best with the results. On the 
other hand, a man is wholly justified in explaining 
so far as he can whatever new experience may 
come to him by reference to that which he already 
knows about the cosmos. A theory developed by 



304 Human Efficiency 

careful analysis of presented facts and compared 
with further experiences to see if idea and thing 
correspond, is very different from a theory inven- 
ted but not confirmed. 

The tacit assumption in the latter case is that 
the intellect is primary and can create truth out 
of its own substance. It would be far truer to 
hold that the will is primary, for we constantly 
find people who undertake to prove what they 
will to prove because of loyalty to creeds, institu- 
tions, leaders, and other persons whom they love. 
In the hands of the majority the intellect is in 
fact a mere instrument to establish what they will 
to establish, what they accept on faith. Expe- 
rience is, however, prior to both the understanding 
and the will, and every one is dependent both in 
point of time and in regard to the relationship of 
mental processes. The fact that the power of 
reason is quickened in men later than the emotions 
and the will is surely a deeply significant fact. 
Some men there are whose noblest motive is to 
follow wherever truth may lead even though the 
truths of science conflict with the desires of their 
will. 

A more serious objection is raised by those who 
apparently put a limit on human efficiency once 
for all by supporting the view that spiritual truth 
given through revelation is radically different 
from " merely natural truth' ' arrived at by means 



Nature and Scope of Reason 305 

of " merely human reason. " It is characteristic of 
upholders of this view to collect a few instances 
of imperfection in human theory, such as the 
difficulties that beset Spencer and Huxley, then 
argue that these failures show the incompetency 
of human reason. These partisans never mention, 
if acquainted with, the greatest reasoners and 
system-makers of the world. To refer to the 
great systems would be in fact to spoil the contrast 
between these "weak attempts" and the "flawless 
structure" of divine revelation. It is tacitly 
admitted, however, that even revealed truth be- 
comes true for man only so far as he employs his 
reason. Not even the most zealous partisan can 
deny this, because it is well known that believers 
in revelation do not agree, that texts and inter- 
pretations differ. When authorities differ, the 
only standard is reason. There must then be a 
criterion which like a mathematical statement is 
demonstrable apart from any particular mind or 
group of minds. But this is reason itself, a power 
which every human being can attain. 

The so-called "unaided reason of man" is a 
myth. No one of us can know the simplest truth 
or reality apart from the relationship with our 
fellows which shows what is common, capable of 
withstanding tests. Reality is social, exists for men 
in a mutual world. Truth becomes ours in so far 
as we eliminate the preconceptions and emotions 



306 Human Efficiency 

that prevent us from apprehending it. Explain 
how the least enlightened of the philosophers 
comes into possession of his central idea and you 
will be able to explain the most inspired passage 
in scripture. For all truth comes by " revelation, M 
if you please. There are not two kinds of knowl- 
edge, as if man's mind were to function imperfectly 
most of the time, then on occasion become a 
perfect means of expressing infallible truth. All 
reason is one. But there are degrees of enlighten- 
ment. Hence even revelation partakes of the 
conditions through which it is given. 

The same is true of every one who falters in 
doubts and questionings between agnosticism and 
blind faith. To stop questioning seems to be 
the only course, hence every effort is made to 
quell the intellect. But the reasons for this situa- 
tion will be found in the life of the individual who 
is in process of transition. If "a little learning 
is a dangerous thing," so is a little analysis, a 
little reasoning. The resource is, first, more 
information and experience, then thorough reason- 
ing. He who really sounds his mind finds the 
difficulties in his own nature. For example, they 
may be due to a cantankerous or rebellious spirit, 
a heart that has never been touched, an obstinacy 
that has excluded knowledge and experience. 
On the other hand, a constructive clue or insight 
transforms the universe. It is not fair to judge 



Nature and Scope of Reason 307 

the intellect by its doubts and criticisms alone. 
Not until we pass beyond these do we understand 
them. The courage of the true man is seen in his 
willingness to encounter any objection for the 
sake of the truth. 

Another objection to the intellect turns on the 
assumption that reason is purely formal, hence that 
intellectual people discard all statements that 
cannot be reduced to the correct processes of the 
syllogism. The ideal of reason is indeed to state 
all matters in demonstrably perfect form, and the 
effort to attain the completeness of statement 
of mathematics is always an incentive. Yet truth 
is larger than merely formal processes, hence 
the effort of the scholar is to state all matters in 
terms such that any man may verify, compare, 
or define, as the case may be, with the same 
results. Reason aims to be dispassionate, free 
alike from the "will to belie ve" and all other 
personal considerations. What cannot be stated 
in precise terms must be suggested in poetic, 
religious, or other terms. For reason must in any 
event be true to life, even though it be compelled 
to admit an element of irrationality. Until the 
latest conclusion has been reached by the last 
possible philosopher in the dying moment of the 
universe itself, it will be untimely to declare that 
reason has failed. 

To reason is not merely to start with a formally 



308 Human Efficiency 

correct statement or premise, then proceed by 
means of a minor premise to a conclusion. To 
discover formal defects in an argument is not 
necessarily to confute it. Hence it means very 
little to point out that there are more considera- 
tions to be taken into account than a given philo- 
sopher has included in his argument. Formal 
processes are an aid, but they do not carry us to 
the end. Few devotees of philosophy would think 
of reducing their systems to mathematically 
exact formulas. 

Reason is the human mind active at its best, 
drawing upon and sanely using all sources of 
information, preserving good sense, guided by 
insight. Reason takes acccount of and reacts 
upon everything that enters into human life. Its 
clues are not taken from its own nature alone, 
but rather from the types and laws of reality which 
experience reveals. Its dependence on its own 
nature is with the conviction that reason in man 
corresponds to reason in the cosmos, in the moral 
law, in the divine mind. Every one must make at 
least this assumption in order to proceed at all. 
We all with good reason maintain that what we 
have to deal with is one system, one universal 
order existing for all, cognisable by all. This 
world-system is in no way dependent upon your 
reason or mine. We hope to elevate our thought 
to the level of universal reason that we may know 



Nature and Scope of Reason 309 

the world as a systematic whole, not merely in 
fragmentary fashion. It involves only a minor 
assumption on our part, this belief that reason can 
apprehend the nature of things and interpret 
reality. For we did not give ourselves the power 
of reason. If made in "the image and likeness of 
God, " it is at least natural to believe that we are 
endowed with rationality that is grounded in the 
divine reason itself. 

The constructive reason in man is the highest 
activity of mental life. It is native to man in his 
best estate to endeavour to give a rationalised 
account of the reality of the cosmos. The basis 
of this endeavour is found in the fact that in man's 
self-consciousness the universe is represented, 
reproduced. Reflective man undertakes to re- 
state the given wealth of experience in terms of 
law, order, system, beauty. This reflective reaction 
naturally begins with the visible order of things in 
the world of space and time. It is as natural that 
man should be eager in the course of time to 
interpret the highest presentations of his inner 
consciousness. 

Otherwise stated,to reason about life is to employ 
a method, and the scientific method is by no means 
an invention of man. When dealing with a given 
field of interest it is natural to ask first of all, 
What are the facts, the actual experiences suppos- 
ably open to all men under normal conditions? 



3io Human Efficiency 

The facts ascertained, it is no less natural to ask, 
What do they imply? What are the laws, tenden- 
cies, stages of change or growth ? What are the goals 
or ultimate results? The third group of questions 
pertain to the principle of explanation, the hypo- 
thesis or theory called for to account for the facts. 
The cautious reasoner endeavours to let his explana- 
tion grow out of the facts, as one might infer in a 
charred forest that there has been a fire. To explain 
the facts in question, such as the markings on a 
ledge that indicate the ancient existence of an 
ice-age, is to state the causes that led to it. To 
interpret an experience, such as a moral deed, 
would be to show why it happened. The special 
sciences grow up around particular groups of 
facts, and involve the principles required by the 
occurrences within the given fields. Philosophy 
grows up in the same way, that is, as the largest 
undertaking of precisely the same sort — the en- 
deavour to deal constructively with the facts and 
values of all the special sciences. The philosopher 
does not spin a system out of his head. His 
thought is not different from the thought of com- 
mon-sense, save that it undertakes to over- 
come all misconceptions whatsoever and carry 
the process of good-sense as far as it can possi- 
bly be carried. 

Thinkers note special stages in this develop- 
ment of a method of thought, and after a time the 



Nature and Scope of Reason 311 

stages of growth receive names. Thus the crea- 
tion of a special science of reasoning by Aristotle 
was subsequent to the capital use of rational 
definition and method by Socrates and Plato. 
Socrates, the great pioneer of precise thinking, 
employed what appeared to be a roundabout 
method of reasoning, by confuting a man if possible, 
because he found that through the persistent 
employment of alternatives he could arrive at the 
greater truth. Consequently, Socrates withheld 
assent so long as he could prove a man 's ignorance. 
The given theory as expounded by its advocate 
stood for one stage of thought, the Socratic criti- 
cism in quest of fundamental definitions marked 
a second stage. The third came into view when 
Plato and Aristotle discerned the idea or inter- 
pretative form which included the truth of the two 
preceding stages of thought. To see that all 
thinking naturally conforms to these stages is to 
have a dialectic method. He who has this 
insight will scarcely be content with any view of 
human life as first stated, but will insist that it 
be put through the dialectic of criticism. This 
need not be to mar any truth, however high its 
origin, or dispute the reality of any experience, 
however sacred. The dialectic process is meant to 
bring out the fuller reality and meaning. It differs 
from usual processes of thought precisely because 
it is critical and follows a method. To understand 



312 Human Efficiency 

the method is to see that no one could be satis- 
fied with anything less. 

The same sort of results reward our investiga- 
tions when we inquire into the nature of proof. 
To be intellectual is supposably to demand proof 
which no one can give, and that is one reason why 
intellectual people are disparaged. But the true 
scholar is one who knows when proof may reason- 
ably be expected. The attempt to prove the 
existence of God or the immortality of the soul 
may, for example, be given up as absurd. If God 
be the primary being without whom there could 
be no rational process at all, His existence is al- 
ready implied in our first statement concerning 
Him. The most important considerations with 
which human thought deals are beyond proof, 
that is, they are immediate, whereas reason 
mediates, makes explicit the given. 1 I cannot 
prove that I exist or that you exist, but I can think 
about my experience and about yours in such a 
way as to imply our existence as selves. It would 
be futile for me to attempt to prove to you every 
statement I make. If I set forth principles which 
accord with your thought and apply in an explana- 
tory way to your experience, you accept them 
precisely because they apply and are true in their 
own right, like the statement, two and two are four. 

1 1 have analysed these matters at length in The Philosophy 
of the Spirit, chap. xi. 



Nature and Scope of Reason 313 

If you pass judgment upon an experience, 
singling out its elements and arriving at a con- 
clusion, you inevitably make such inferences on 
the basis of your own intelligence. This is true 
even if you utter judgments in the name of author- 
ity, tacitly assuming that your own wit has had 
nothing whatever to do with the case. Strictly 
speaking, there is no proof of any proposition 
whatsoever except that made by the individual for 
himself, no verification other than that which you 
or I may make. Hence there is always a sense in 
which any idea you may hold is always your own 
idea even in case of the idea of God. You may 
hold that your idea corresponds with reality, but 
you make this assumption on your own authority. 
When your consciousness changes your idea may 
change, and you may have many gods in a life- 
time. Your idea of God, Life, or the Absolute, is 
your own idea of the working principle of thought 
in accordance with which you try to interpret 
your experience in and of the world. It is native 
to the human mind thus to try to give an ultimate 
account of its own operations. The significance 
of the critical philosophy is that it centres interest 
so decidedly upon the human equation that no one 
who thinks consecutively can overlook it. 

If you hold that a primary reality exists corre- 
sponding to this your idea, assumed to be sec- 
ondary, you make this assumption as an act of 



3H Human Efficiency 

faith, because your experience appears to be better 
accounted for in that way. Whatever experiences 
and insights you may appeal to by way of substan- 
tiation of your faith, your appeal is always for 
reasons, and it is the philosopher's province to 
render these explicit. You may shrink from 
acknowledging these reasons, alleging that your 
faith far surpasses reason, but you will always 
do this with lame reasoning in face of the opportu- 
nity to stand erect and indulge in maturity of 
thought. Your only resource, when you dislike 
the philosopher's statement, is to reason more 
adequately than he. 

Those of us who meet life reflectively are steadily 
making observations and constructive judgments, 
and thus we are gradually rearing a theory of the 
world. This need not imply originality, for we pass 
through the same process in the study of the great 
systems of thought. Every now and then we see 
these systems in a new way and thus we advance 
a stage in our insight. No one can expect to 
understand a system who does not as it were live 
with it as one might dwell with friends under the 
same roof through varying conditions. But the 
point is that we mediate, react upon everything we 
touch. Since this is true, why should we not 
begin on as sound a basis as possible, making sure 
of our facts and drawing valid inferences? For 
many of us this would mean beginning with the 



Nature and Scope of Reason 315 

first step in the use of the scientific method, that is 
the discovery of the actually presented facts of 
experience, since it is highly important to know the 
difference between facts and the rival theories 
which purport to account for them. 

In this plea for the scientific method one does 
not mean that intellectual enlightenment is the 
same as being "liberal. " The liberal is apt to take 
pride in the fact that he has outgrown numberless 
beliefs still held by the uninformed. Thus he 
becomes dogmatic in regard to the higher criticism 
of the scriptures, he assumes the finality of the 
Kantian criticism, or laughs at one who has not 
yet accepted the Darwinian hypothesis. In con- 
trast with this cocksureness, the enlightened 
person is ever cautious when making general 
statements, well aware that the results are not all 
at hand as yet. He is eager to penetrate farther 
back to the sources of human experience and 
knowledge, to enter deeply enough into the experi- 
ences of men to make sure that he appreciates what 
is best, never placing too much stress on the crudi- 
ties of human belief. He is therefore more than 
merely liberal; he is tolerant, charitable, philo- 
sophical ; he accepts the entire cosmos, with every- 
body and everything in it, intent on knowing the 
total system of things, excluding nothing. He 
may have as much critical information as the mere 
liberal, but he must outdo him in genuine liberality. 



316 Human Efficiency 

The dogmatism of the mere liberal is often worse 
than that of the intellectually innocent. 

To be broad-minded in the popular sense of the 
term is not necessarily to be wise. Some people 
on principle maintain a kind of open-mindedness 
which they call being "universal." They are 
ready to hear all types of thought expounded, they 
have interests without limit. Admirably free in 
most respects, they are undeveloped in others. 
That is, their broad-mindedness pertains to the 
objects of the senses, the instincts and emotions. 
But this is not universality as nature teaches it. 
Nature is not merely elemental, does not merely 
produce; nature mounts from level to level, in 
order and degree ; nature culminates, attains ends. 
To be universal is to discriminate, ascertain values, 
stating the facts in question in terms of law. 
Hence the universal in the end implies a system 
which organises, makes whole. Moreover, a 
universal throws out some considerations as of 
little import or of the nature of over-production. 
Hence the merely elemental is only an introductory 
stage, like the play of the child, or any expressive- 
ness that does not yet involve meanings. 

Hence in the study of the great faiths of the world 
he is equipped who is able to discern what is 
significant, essential. Merely to listen to repre- 
sentatives of various faiths in a sympathetic 
spirit counts for little. That which the uncritical 



Nature and Scope of Reason 317 

listener applauds may well be that which is of 
least moment because most peculiar. The re- 
flective listener seeks to penetrate beneath the 
surfaces that he may grasp the first principles 
underlying the given doctrine. His part is to 
reconstruct in imagination the thought which 
leads up to the doctrine as now expounded, that 
he may know its type, see what attitude it implies 
and what contribution it makes to universal 
thought. 

The enlightened man puts things in the right 
order. He well knows that there is an attitude 
which impedes the way, insisting that every utter- 
ance shall conform to his standard. Hence he 
gives abundant recognition to the fact that the 
spirit in man is the leader. He knows that experi- 
ence comes first, then thought, and that no one is 
wise enough to map the spiritual cosmos in advance. 
He knows, too, that the element of appreciation, 
sentiment, empirical response, will always exceed 
that of reflective description, which follows halt- 
ingly behind. But all this once understood, the 
more intellectual he can become the better. 
Simply to say and to maintain that spiritual 
quickening is of the heart, not of the head, is to 
adopt an intellectual standard, for a criterion is 
necessarily intellectual. The crucial point is not 
then with reference to the nature of the intellect, 
for we all employ that in any event. The question 



318 Human Efficiency 

is whether we always permit the Spirit to take the 
lead, whether we distinguish between the finite 
spirit and the Holy Spirit, taking care lest we in- 
trude the human will and thought, the merely per- 
sonal preference or emotion. 

We have succeeded in this discussion if we have 
put the emphasis where it belongs at last. De- 
cidedly finite, personal influences, such as emotions, 
preferences, dislikes, impede the life of the heart 
as surely as pride, conceit, and coldness impede the 
intellect. Indeed there are more allowances to 
be made for the heart than in regard to the head, 
for reason is by nature universal, while the heart 
is personal. It is primarily a question of the man, 
the woman, the type of life or experience. Some 
need to be broadened intellectually, while others 
need to be touched in their hearts. We need not 
be disconcerted by the personal equation if we 
understand it. 

But it is also in part a question of the prevailing 
point of view. We have noted in an earlier chap- 
ter, for example, the artificial point of view which 
prevails in certain works on psychology. 1 For 
writers whose point of view is " structural' ' the 
human mind is regarded, not as experienced, but as 
scientifically reducible to sensational elements. 
Everything of a purposive nature is rigidly ruled 
out. In other words, the interest is to develop a 

1 See Chap. III. 



Nature and Scope of Reason 319 

complete science, one that is aesthetically a whole. 
On the other hand, the empiricist writer, Professor 
James, whose lead we have followed, describes the 
mind as you and I experience it and undertakes to 
be true to life. In each case the results depend on 
the starting-point, and we have two decidedly 
different types of psychological theory. Artificial 
theorists are found in all fields where human 
knowledge has attained scientific precision, and 
allowances must always be made for them. This 
is no reason, however, for discrediting human 
powers. The ideal reasoner is the one who allows 
life to take the lead, who does not decide in advance 
or arbitrarily what shall constitute his science. 
Still another negative tendency is traceable in 
modern times to Kant with his a priori analyses 
of pure reason. But, again, we need not be dis- 
concerted by a technical interest, judged by those 
who are far from being close students of Kant. 
Hegel, Kant's most systematic follower, has been 
charged with the attempt to deduce the entire 
cosmos by a priori reasoning, as if " pure thought " 
were all that is required for a starting-point. But 
those who herald this opinion abroad neglect the 
fact that Hegel arrives at his dialectic method by 
an analysis of consciousness as directly presented, 
and aims throughout his system to develop a series 
of concepts which shall be as true to life as this 
the starting-point. In the Supplementary Essay 



320 Human Efficiency 

appended to The Philosophy of the Spirit I have 
made a technical study of this subject and given 
all the evidence required to vindicate Hegel as one 
of the most concrete of all philosophers. 

Nor need the devotee of reason be disconcerted 
when a clear-thinking writer like Bergson attacks 
the position of the rationalist. ■ For what Bergson 
offers is a rival series of concepts intended to be 
more faithful to life than those of the artificial 
theorisers. This is really a vindication of human 
reason. It once more shows conclusively the pro- 
found import of the law which we have been study- 
ing throughout this book, the law of interest or 
attention. Everything depends in the first place 
on one's quickening, the experiences in question, 
the facts brought into view. Whatever interests 
us the mind works upon, forthwith producing 
results according to the interest. Reason takes its 
clue from the subject-matter presented. That the 
temperament of the thinker is a factor goes with- 
out saying. What is needed is thinkers of a more 
and more dispassionate type, then comparisons 
between their results, references back to life, thus 
on and on until we shall arrive at universal truth. 

We return, then, to the profound truth that 
there is but one mind with various processes, one 
of which is reason, a process through which if we 

1 See especially his Creative Evolution, Eng. trans., Henry Holt 
and Co., New York, 191 1. 



Nature and Scope of Reason 321 

are critical and diligent we may arrive at truth 
and reality. Reason in brief, then , is that power 
in man by which he singles out facts, analyses and 
classifies them, then proceeds to develop their 
implications in terms of laws, universals, ideals 
and values by systematic interpretation. The 
facts and laws are not the inventions of man, 
hence no one need fear that he may be deprived 
of anything of value. The implications are found 
in the nature of things, like the law of gravita- 
tion discovered by Newton. Man formulates the 
implied principle or law, then proceeds to show 
how the force in question works, stating the law 
in exact terms applicable the world over under 
the same conditions. It is the nature of things 
that is rational, not any scheme of man. Man in 
his enlightenment follows the order of nature. He 
is able to do this because he has the same nature 
in himself. 

The truth about the cosmos is immanent in the 
cosmos itself, and what philosophy undertakes to do 
is to make this truth explicit. All truth is ultimate- 
ly one, that is, it pertains to the nature or system 
of things. The truth about religion, including the 
truths contained in sacred books, is a part of that 
truth; and the data are supplied by the books, 
prophets, dogmas, creeds, that is, by the given 
experiences and beliefs of men. The philosophical 
student of these subjects does not invent his philo- 



322 Human Efficiency 

sophy, although he may suggest hypotheses regard- 
ing matters not yet understood. He is limited by 
the given subject-matter and by the reasoning 
powers of his own mind. His aim is to state the 
elements, laws, and values of religions in such a way 
that any man with an equal degree of enlighten- 
ment could arrive at the same conclusions. The 
most enlightened statements in this connection 
would doubtless be those which would explain 
even revelation, inspiration, prophecy, incarnation, 
in universal terms. This would not be audacious 
on man's part, since the subject-matter is already 
given, and since these principles and experiences 
can be described, explained, and interpreted from 
the human side. A sacred writing contains its 
own rationality and is proved by its workability 
or fruits. Inspiration is really such if it make 
known truths which can be co-ordinated with 
other known truths. A prophet is worth while 
who really stirs men to good works. The incar- 
nation proves itself many times over by the results 
to which it leads. The same Mind that reveals, 
inspires, quickens a man into prophecy, incarnates 
itself, declaring the same truth which the entire 
cosmos reveals. Hence to get our clue in all these 
matters we only need think back to the great 
Source whence cometh all wisdom, in whose rea- 
son man's own reason is grounded. 

The efficiency of human reason is therefore 



Nature and Scope of Reason 323 

dependent on the prevailing ideas of each man. 
If a man's attitude imply pessimism, rebellion, he 
will employ his intellect to sustain his attitude, 
and will find abundant evidence to prove his point. 
It is nearly always easier to argue against a thing 
than to plead for it. But the efficient will is the 
life of true reason. Emerson was nearly right 
when he declared that "the hardest task in the 
world is to think. " Reason and effort ascend 
together. Reason is in fact the supreme effort or 
reaction of man in the presence of his environment. 
The intellectual life seems a paltry thing, the play 
of the idle, productive of little save paradoxes and 
doubts, if we persist in emphasising the negativi- 
ties of life. Or, if in some measure enlightened, 
we put forth valiant effort, it leads us on and on 
until we appear to be participating in the very 
work of creation itself. Reason was given us that 
we might become more efficient, and if we do not 
make the effort we have no ground for complaint. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE LAW OF LOVE 



IT is commonly agreed that in love to God and 
love to man the highest law of human existence 
is fulfilled. This complete love is not merely 
accepted as the summary of all that is noblest in 
the righteous life because the New Testament 
assures us that it is "the law and the prophets/' 
but because human experience and thought con- 
firm it. The love for God that is manifested by the 
hermit, the isolated seer or saint, is never love in 
its wholeness or sanity. On the other hand, those 
who try to make the brotherhood of man take 
the entire place of love for God are no less one- 
sided. It is no longer necessary to support these 
points in this social age, with its belief in the divine 
immanence. We need rather to consider how this 
two-fold ideal shall be realised under the changed 
conditions of our day. One can scarcely hope to 
add a new idea to the rich literature of love. But 
it is always possible to afford new clues by restat- 
ing the ideal in the light of present tendencies 
of thought and life. 

324 



The Law of Love 325 

No one can claim that we are left in doubt in 
regard to the nature of this great love for the One 
and the many. The New Testament is above all 
a book about the transcendent affections of the 
heavenly life. The best thought of the author of 
the Epistles of St. John is put into his characteris- 
ation of love, and St. Paul's writings culminate 
in a classic summary of the greatest of all Christian 
powers. The life of the Master portrays the ideal 
of love for the Father and for humanity through 
complete fidelity to the tasks that lie at hand. 
He who would know the supreme pathway of love 
cannot p'ead ignorance, or claim that the example 
stops short of full fruition. Moreover, in great 
hymns the ideal which at times seems beyond hu- 
man attainment is mediated to us in illuminating 
forms. The poets have dedicated their best works 
to love, divine and human, revealing all phases of 
the heart's affection, while love has ever been the 
central theme of the novelists and dramatists, some- 
times of the essayists and philosophers. Above 
all, we have everywhere about us splendid exempli- 
fications of the father's love, the mother's devotion, 
the consecration of the reformer, the zeal of the 
genuine worshipper. Surely this is an amazing 
and wondrous possession. 

With all this agreement concerning the highest 
ideal and all this descriptive literature, why is it 
that love does not as yet prevail? If God is love, 



326 Human Efficiency 

if love is the very centre of human life, why is it 
that multitudes are suffering and struggling in 
poverty, misery, degradation, as if left utterly 
alone? Why do men stand off from their fellows 
as if they were not in any sense of the same kind- 
red, but rather like foes, ready at a moment's 
notice to protect what is boastfully their own? 
Surely it is well to look at the darker picture side 
by side with the bright one, acknowledging all that 
is rampant in human nature, admitting the rarity 
of ideal love. All that is most vital and real is 
commingled with love. The literature referred to 
is abundant in its confirmation of this fact. To 
know love, see its power in the world, and work 
with it, we must look at life and see it whole, 
effacing nothing from the picture. If faith must 
frequently be summoned to our aid, let it be so, 
but we must be brave and insistent, as true to 
fact as to ideal — never forgetting to preserve and 
to manifest the tender emotion while reading its 
history in the world. 

The general answer many would make to these 
questions is that man is a creature of habit, 
passion, and emotion; that the world is selfish. 
It is ordinarily said that our situation in life will 
be no better until human nature changes, and that 
human nature will never change. But this is sheer 
pessimism and we demand the triumph of love. 
It is possible to make headway from the start if 



The Law of Love 327 

instead of merely regarding love as a tender emotion 
with the odds against it we place more emphasis 
on the idea of love, undertaking to inculcate 
sounder knowledge of its nature, its scope, and 
power. We may advance still further by more 
seriously asking, How can our powers be so trained 
and co-ordinated as to prepare for the expression of 
love? What qualities favour love's expression? 
What light may be gained through knowledge 
that man is in the beginning a divided self? How 
may love be made more efficient by fostering the 
conditions under which it lives and conquers? 
Surely we have no right to condemn the world 
and turn from God in despair when as yet we have 
made no attempt seriously to answer these more 
searching questions. 

To give answer it is necessary to look deeply 
into human life, to search far back, look far 
forward. For love pertains to the lowest as well as 
the highest in human evolution, reminding us 
both of the brute and of the angel. Its mysteries 
are soluble only through imaginative sympathy 
with every propensity that actuates mankind, 
a sympathy which transcends class-distinctions, 
and passes beyond the dominion of conventionality. 
The quest for its meaning also takes us into the 
territory of the unexpected, since its most marvel- 
lous expressions sometimes well into the hearts of 
the despised, the untutored, and the condemned. 



328 Human Efficiency 

The solution of the divinest mystery is not attain- 
able by turning at once to the Father, as if demand- 
ing a solution before we realise the full force of 
our problem. When, granted intimate knowledge 
of the waywardness of the human heart, we can 
look upon the passions and contests of men and 
still see the love of God fulfilled, then indeed 
shall we be able to love both God and man in high 
degree. If God is love, His productive heart is 
profoundly involved in these questions. Possibly 
we have not taken into full account the far-reach- 
ing means to the high end to be attained through 
our sufferings. Possibly we have held an arbitrary, 
exclusive idea of love, instead of looking for its 
law even in the despised things of life. 

We may well begin by more generously accept- 
ing the entire human cosmos, in search of a larger 
view of love as a universal power. Whatever love 
may appear to be, however transcendent, it is 
plain that men have always been deeply influenced 
by the theories of love that have prevailed. So 
long as this is the case it will be possible to further 
the cause of love by propounding a better view. 

To say this is not, however, to be unmindful of 
the fact that there is an element which surpasses 
even the most appreciative description. Love 
is as rich, as mysterious as life itself; and we all 
know how life eludes us, now drawing from us 
expressions of bitter discontent, now eliciting our 



The Law of Love 329 

admiration and our joy, again baffling our wits 
beyond all endurance. Life's sublimest joys and 
greatest sorrows are mingled with love. It is 
love we fight for, live for, give everything to win. 
Yet since this greatest of incentives is better 
known than aught else, there appears to be every 
reason why we should say what we can, leaving 
to the heart of each to make that addition without 
which our description were poor indeed. Perhaps 
our reluctance to speak about the most sacred ele- 
ment in human experience is a mistake. Possibly, 
half the trouble is that love signifies so much vague- 
ness of feeling that it has not been brought into 
the clear light of thought. If an inadequate 
philosophy of the affections has prevailed, the 
resource is more and better reasoning. 

Love is a quality or emotion, then, that is in- 
volved in the whole of life, and in the present analy- 
sis we are presupposing all that has been said in the 
foregoing chapters about the original promptings 
and incentives amidst which the emotions appear. 
First, we propose to regard it rather as a beginning 
or means than an end, a prompting far more than 
a fulfilment. While it partakes of the unstable, 
flighty nature of the other emotions in its earlier 
stages, it becomes less like them as the human 
heart ascends, and is notable rather for its con- 
stancy. Its law is best seen in relation to the 
mile-posts which men pass along the way, the 



330 Human Efficiency 

standards they raise, and the goals they pursue. 
For while in its essence love is elusive, is a unitary 
power suffusing the whole of life, the consequences 
to which it leads may be separately analysed, and 
under the head of the idea we may state the worth 
of the otherwise ineffable emotion. 

Looking at the subject more closely, we find an 
abundance of people who are able to tell us what 
love is not, hence by implication what it is. We 
have been warned since our youth not to accept 
the subtle influences and spells that pass as love. 
The more we know about the dependence of the 
mind on the body the less likely are we to be misled 
by its blandishments. Thus as the years succeed 
one another we may eliminate more and more of 
the flesh from our idea, steadily building up an 
ideal of noble, spiritual affection, an affection 
which transmutes the lower nature into the higher. 
By inward struggle we have learned once for all 
that there are two natures in man, and we have 
come to regard love as a gift apart from passion and 
essentially unselfish. Yet it is clearly impossible 
to sunder love from its physical history, a truth 
most beautifully expressed by Lowell in his poems 
on love and by Browning in his " By the Fireside. " 
Love in some guise is the incentive which sends 
all men forth into the world of experience. Life 
is replete with instincts that manifest love — love 
for existence, and the conditions that make life 



The Law of Love 331 

comfortable and happy, for the excellencies and 
joys, for companionship. Love is commingled with 
all our instincts, likes, and preferences, whether 
of the head or the heart. Without taking thought 
we find ourselves pursuing any number of ends 
amidst a wealth of propensities that relate us to 
our fellows on every side. Oftentimes we know not 
that we love until well launched in a new experi- 
ence, and then only by painful contrast do we at 
first know what love is. First in point of time, 
and first with most of the race throughout their 
history, the incentives of love are what make us 
creatures of action, courage, power. Love brought 
us into being and imbues every activity that stirs 
within our selfhood, this too despite the other 
truth that pride, lawlessness, sensuality, selfishness, 
and sin, also mingle with the motives that give men 
birth. This indeed is the fundamental prompting 
around which these secondary impulses gather, 
and we never read human history aright until we 
discover that this is so. At the heart and in the 
beginning, whatever else may intervene, there is 
love. Hence fundamental knowledge of the heart 
includes knowledge of all. 

Children go forth into the life of play, for exam- 
ple, prompted by love in the sense of self-expres- 
sion. With restless, persistent power the young 
life manifests its needs through higher forms, until 
it wins the attention of parents and teachers, and is 



33 2 Human Efficency 

developed in appropriate and well-known direc- 
tions. The one who approaches the child through 
the wisest love calls forth the highest reaction; 
when love for children and the matters that per- 
tain to them is lacking the secondary activities 
are difficult to regulate. As love advances, its 
objects become more clearly defined, its varied 
activities more fruitful. If it meet love and 
sympathy, the right encouragement coupled with 
a wise system of training, creative love moves 
steadily upward to accomplishment. If it meet 
indifference or severe criticism, love retreats, 
checked, saddened, and suppressed. It is wonder- 
ful how many matters are quickly adjusted when 
all is well with love. 

Again, there is the love for beautiful forms which 
manifests itself at a later stage of human develop- 
ment. This aesthetic love first awakens in wonder, 
admiration, praise; for example, in the love of 
beautiful scenes in nature, particularly in the field 
and woods, then through love for illustrations in 
books, pictures, statuary, and other products of 
fine art. However restricted in expression, it is 
at least manifested for the works of others, in the 
enjoyment of music or the attainment of a high 
degree of excellence on the part of our fellows. 
Eventually the love of beauty lifts us to the divine, 
becomes part of the ideal that most directly fur- 
thers our spiritual evolution. Thus the love of 



The Law of Love 333 

the beautiful shows its kinship to love for the 
good and "the beauty of holiness* p transfigures 
the noblest phase of religion. 

A certain instinct for knowledge possesses us long 
before we consciously become devotees of science. 
It begins its activity far back in childhood with 
eager curiosity and restless questionings. It 
manifests itself later in a half -emotional way, 
and only gradually becomes itself in the dawning 
of manhood's life of reason. All through our 
existence this love of knowledge still urges us on, 
never permitting us to be wholly satisfied even 
when checked by outward circumstance, blind 
allegiance to authority, or a mistaken religious 
belief. Truth could not be itself without love, for 
love is the essence or content of which the idea 
is the explicit form. Reason does not create its 
objects or invent its field of inquiry, and is not 
independently responsible for its own nature. 
Love supplies the absorbing subject-matter, while 
reason brings into clear light the order and beauty 
of the living sequences. True reason is the logic 
of love, that is, of universal love, head and heart 
are one in the eternal Mind. The order which 
reason makes explicit in its systematic account 
of the cosmos is a gift of the experience which 
makes the philosopher essentially a lover of 
wisdom. 

As Plato long ago pointed out, it is love that 



334 Human Efficiency 

sends us forth in eager quest for completion through 
the moral life. As mere individuals we are surroun- 
ded by limitations, with the odds against us. As 
social beings, loving and serving, working in 
consort with our fellowmen, a great realm of 
possibilities opens before us. Our sense of incom- 
pleteness expresses our dependence, shows how we 
are bound one to another by ties that call for moral 
self -completion. The love that stirs within us and 
sends us forth in search of friendship is not merely 
love for persons but for the eternal idea which 
rises supreme above all others, unites with the 
true and the beautiful to constitute the divine 
order. There is first the love or desire for complete 
self-realisation, then the idea of the good as the 
explicit object which love pursues. More than in 
the case of love of beauty and truth, love for the 
good leads our consciousness to the divine, enabling 
us not merely' to live and serve but to possess a 
philosophy of goodness. 

Above all there is love for persons, the greatest 
incentive in human life. Beginning with the 
manifestations of mere instinct, long associated 
with private or selfish desires, this love gradually 
emerges and becomes purified until at length it 
appears as the actuating principle in the noblest 
affiliations of men and women. Starting also as 
a purely domestic emotion, centring about the 
family, it extends to the larger life of service and 



The Law of Love 335 

self-sacrifice; and is completed in extensive social 
groups within and without the church. Here as 
elsewhere the emotion comes first, later the organi- 
sation or form. 

Thus we have a general system of love and its 
allied activities, with the ideas or objects in which 
they are fulfilled. Love is the central or primal 
activity which originally stirs us and leads forth 
to experience, also the chief actuating principle 
along the way. Out from the single source proceed 
the various distinctive lines of development, known 
by the goals they seek rather than by the love 
which prompted them — love for the beautiful, 
the true, the good ; for persons and groups of per- 
sons in family life and organisations ; for the cosmic 
whole, the moral order, the invisible kingdom; 
above all for God. Although in the original sense 
an immediacy or native emotion, allied with 
pleasure and pain, love is singled out from these 
impulses and in a progressive life constantly under- 
goes development from the merely immediate 
into the realm of ideas, aspirations, and inward 
control through reason. 

That love is the central principle of our nature 
becomes still more clear when we note that in 
another phase it is will. If you would really 
persuade a man, young or old, put before him an 
object which he is likely to will to make his own, 
love him in such a way that his will may change. 



33 6 Human Efficiency 

When will has found a way to its end and has 
brought abundant experience, reason may indeed 
follow and show why the way was sought. But 
will is first in order, that is, love is the real incen- 
tive. This is not of course to say that the will 
ought always to triumph, for one would like to be 
open both to will and to reason. There are matters 
that belong rightfully and primarily to the heart, 
such as that wonderful love by which men and 
women choose affinities. Yet there are also matters 
that pertain to the head in which no interference 
of the will is desirable. As human evolution goes 
forward and love's objects become more explicit, 
it is inevitable that life should be stated more as 
idea rather than as will. Hence there is a pro- 
found sense in which he is mature who obeys 
reason rather than will. 

By will-power in extreme form we mean a less 
noble factor in human life than love, for love 
does not become crystallised and severe. When 
will is obstinate and rigid, it has already ceased 
to be love and is subject to selfishness. A selfish 
person is above all one in whom the will is trium- 
phant. The difficulty is that side by side with 
marked efficiency, there is the narrowing assump- 
tion that one's personal way is the only right way, 
my doctrine is true while yours is false. When 
the will is thus enslaved all partners suffer. For 
the possessor of such a will the way is prepared 



The Law of Love 337 

for the greatest struggle in human life — the yield- 
ing of the will through moral regeneration. 

In contrast with this arbitrary self-assertiveness, 
love is ever outgoing, appreciative; it accepts, 
welcomes, finding room for many people of diverse 
types in the world. In love's enlightened world 
each soul counts for one and one only, each man 
is encouraged to make his gift. Love moves 
forward, its pathways lead far beyond mere alle- 
giance to personal leaders, to admiration for uni- 
versal objects; and these are not limited by time, 
place, person, or authority of any sort. In due 
course our revered leaders are seen in proper 
perspective in the light of the ideal ends which 
they serve. Later, both persons and the causes 
to which they are devoted are seen in relation to 
the divine Person. 

The arbitrary person is one who refuses the 
enlightenment which the head may bestow upon 
the heart. The assumption is that the feminine or 
emotional element is all-sufficient, that the intellect 
is cold and unfeeling. But careful analysis in the 
light of results shows, as we have before noted, 
that intuition is at best merely a half, incapable 
of attaining wholeness apart from the rational or 
verifying factor; while in many instances an emo- 
tion is merely a clue of no value until tested in the 
light of its consequences. An intuition proves its 
worth when it leads to successful eventuations, 



33 8 Human Efficiency 

modified or elaborated through the critical aid 
offered by reason. The love that is content to 
remain mere emotion is forever immature and 
unstable. Mere warmth of feeling is in itself no 
sign of the noble and worthy, but may lead down 
as well as up. Genuine love accepts the good 
offices of reason and is tempered by wisdom. Love 
and wisdom together make the perfect whole. 

In all this, the critic will insist, I am assuming 
that love is unselfish, spiritual, whereas by my own 
argument it follows that love is the life even of 
selfish man. The difficulty is that one must use 
the same word with reference to widely different 
motives and types of experience. In the fore- 
going account I have endeavoured to keep free 
from theological entanglements and to hold to the 
Greek conception of human nature as inherently 
good. That is to say, the power of love in us, 
even when manifested on the sensuous level, is of 
and from the divine. Love is the universal activity 
within us which sends us forth in pursuit of the 
divine. By implication it is already that which is 
highest, purest, noblest. Moreover, the self, hence 
the will, is inherently sound, true; for the soul is a 
child of God, and exists in order that it may fulfil 
the purposes of the Father. As little children we 
go forth innocent, pure and fresh from heavenly 
sources. Unless heaven were " about us in our 
infancy, " unless we were potentially angels, unless 



The Law of Love 339 

the Father's love were the prime motive power 
we never could become heavenly beings in the 
far future. 

Evil and sin are not explained by assuming 
that the elements are bad, the self is wicked. 
Equipped with a nature capable of withstanding 
the frictions and tribulations of growth, replete 
with instincts, guided by a love that is capable of 
leading us through everything to the end, we are 
sent forth into being, unconscious, unquickened. 
It is natural that with all the care for self required 
for existence in this natural world we should at 
first express our love through the channels of 
self-interest. But it is not necessary to charge 
love with selfishness, or call it " blind.' ' The 
natural history of love involves every experience 
in human life. That history is the record of love's 
progressive efforts to attain fulness of expression. 
Thus a time comes when passion and sensuality 
are put behind, while love presses steadily on. 
So with all the fluctuations of the human heart 
through the love-affairs of young and old, the 
relationships of parent and child, husband and 
wife, son and mother-in-law. These are stages 
in the great struggle of the soul into fulness of 
being. It would be unfair to judge love by the 
conditions of its evolution. 

There is a sense, to be sure, in which love is 
personal and must ever remain so. The mother 



34° Human Efficiency 

must care first for her own child, protecting it with 
special devotion and a display of peculiar tender- 
ness. The husband or wife is dear in an individual 
respect never shared with the world in general. 
There is a great difference between friendship and 
complete marital love based on genuine inner 
affinity. These are rightful differences. They are 
personal and should remain so. There is nothing 
higher in the cosmos than to be a person. One 
would take very little interest even in an angel 
who should be merely impersonal. One has no 
sympathy with the rude levelling doctrines which 
undertake to reduce people to so many units, as if 
quality were of no account. Love begins by being 
personal and never succeeds in discovering aught 
that is higher. 

Nevertheless, we have seen that in the last analy- 
sis love is intelligible in the light of the ends it 
seeks. Love for the true and the beautiful, for 
example, becomes differentiated from love of 
persons, and rightfully so. Although pursued by 
persons, more or less for the sake of persons, and 
in behalf of the good, the arts and sciences are so 
far independent that they flourish best when most 
free. Hence the discerning man is one who knows 
in what respect love leads now to personal and now 
to universal ends. 

Even in the sphere of the good the transcendence 
of the impersonal and universal over the personal 



The Law of Love 341 

is seen. That is, disinterestedness takes the place 
of private considerations. The growing moral man 
becomes steadily disinterested, narrowing his 
essentially personal relationships to very few. 
But the two loves continue side by side in the 
normal life. The term " heavenly love" is perhaps 
best expressive of this union of the personal and 
the impersonal. Such love has in view the highest 
spiritual welfare of the soul, of all souls, hence is 
impartial, universal. Yet it centres about person- 
ality and is manifested in behalf of personalities. 
It is not love as ordinarily understood but love 
fully and harmoniously united with wisdom. 

Love is at once the strongest bond in human 
life and the power that most fully sets men free. 
If we could do as we like, many of us would doubt- 
less turn from people who are able to be of great 
service to us, we would sunder family ties and 
other relationships, and start anew in other fields. 
But it is fortunate for us that love and the duties 
that grow out of love compel us to remember and 
take account of the fact that we have fathers, 
mothers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, cousins. 
Thus intimately and inseparably related we are 
compelled to learn the deeper lessons of life. As a 
reward for our fidelity the greater love is bestowed 
upon us. In fact, one might almost say that true 
love begins with the deepening of ties that hold us 
where we are and help us to be unselfish. If we 



34 2 Human Efficiency 

could endlessly yield ourselves to its enticements, 
we should never know true love. But when we 
have once committed the heart in full measure to 
one person, family or group, the will comes to the 
support of love, scattered affection becomes an 
affair of the past, and the conditions of stable 
affection are attained. Thus love and character 
grow strong together and life is characterised by 
a purpose. 

In our early zeal we are apt to think that love 
means mating with one person and going away to 
enjoy life. Now, it is true that love of a certain 
type begins with a relationship of two, and that 
every pair of lovers need opportunity to live and 
grow together. Yet the severer tests of love come 
with the relationship between the two and their 
fellows. The ties that unite two souls are strength- 
ened in so far as the influences that seek to 
come between them are understood and met. 
The heart-relationships of a year seem meagre in 
comparison with those of six, eight, a dozen years; 
and steadily the reality grows. In instances where 
external influences are permitted to enter and mar 
or break the gentle, sacred relationship of two 
souls, a prime reason is found in the fact that 
mutual understanding fails to keep pace with 
mutual love. Love of the ideal sort which we find 
occasionally amongst our fellows is not a simple 
relationship, but it has become its ideal actuality 



The Law of Love 343 

through growth, by mutual contact with the 
wealthiness of human experience, through con- 
siderateness, through wisdom, and ever -ready- 
adaptation. 

It is necessary to insist upon the transition from 
emotion to idea, from simplicity to fulness inas- 
much as the mere idea of it is usually scorned. 
People linger endlessly in the emotional stage, 
endeavouring to hold fast to a sort of ecstasy, as if 
only thus could love be won. They steadily refuse 
to bring their affections out into the light of 
thought, as if intellectual inspection would spoil 
them. Thus love is confined, checked, kept one- 
sided as if there were hostile elements that would 
destroy it. But those large and generous people 
who stand as ideal representatives of love, permit 
love to fill their entire being, they love with the 
totality of the selfhood. Such people find a joy 
in the mere presence of a revered friend, although 
no word be spoken, and again in the mutual work 
to which both are consecrated, the work that 
proceeds quietly from day to day, with no flourish 
of trumpets to proclaim it. 

Love, one insists, is by nature outgoing, enlarg- 
ing, quickening. The sign of its genuine arrival 
is seen in one's longing to share with others, an 
outreaching in sympathy and eager joy. Those 
who fail to move outward and forward into com- 
pleter life are inevitably drawn in the opposite 



344 Human Efficiency 

direction — into a smaller world than before. But 
the one who responds, moving outward with the 
new wave of life, finds the possibilities of exis- 
tence developing without limit. Hence when two 
who meet in real love, welcome others into their lar- 
ger world, they steadily grow in devoted tenderness. 
Again, love is creative. If men knew this and 
were able to turn their thoughts and activities in 
productive directions they would find a sure escape 
from the emotional fluctuations of the artistic 
temperament and the inner conflicts of the reli- 
gious life. The stirrings of love cannot be impeded 
but must have expression. To realise that love is 
divine in origin and tends towards heavenly goals 
is to see that something is demanded of us by way 
of co-operation. To respond in full earnestness 
is to consider the particular end just now aimed at 
by love, hence to become absorbed in the objective. 
That is to say, while the creative prompting may 
be the same in origin in us all, it assumes different 
forms according to our capacity and experience. 
Some are prompted to paint a picture, some to 
design a building, others to compose, to write, to 
sing, or play ; still others turn the creative life into 
the work of the church or some organisation devoted 
to social welfare. The crucial point in each case 
is the expression of love for the benefit of others 
in contrast with the tendency to keep the new 
life for oneself, 



The Law of Love 345 

Love not only brings freedom but makes life 
new. It is remarkable how many times friends are 
able to make a fresh start in mutual work and ser- 
vice when they meet in love, effacing differences of 
opinion, drawing nearer to the everlasting reali- 
ties. A word of love and cheer surpasses all other 
utterances in power. For love's sake one is will- 
ing to undertake the seemingly impossible, to 
begin again when all signs have failed. If the 
companion one seeks is not forthcoming, love 
finds a way to distribute itself, so to speak, so 
that its ends are attained. Love and a few pos- 
sessions, and one or two congenial souls make a 
world for us. Without love nothing is truly worth 
while. 

In this description the central point on which 
one insists is that love is essentially an activity 
starting with the immediate promptings of human 
nature, and passing through various stages. Hence 
love is not intelligible through static conditions 
but in the light of its evolution. This is the side of 
love most often neglected in our zeal for immediate 
possession,or for satisfaction in the present. Love's 
choicest gifts are not found in the emotions which 
fill the hour and sweep outwards to the horizon, 
leading us to ignore all else; they are bestowed 
amidst fluctuations and new adjustments along 
the line of growth. He who does not know that 
love, especially marital love and the best love which 



34 6 Human Efficiency 

the Spirit inspires in us, means development, will 
miss the greatest joys as well as the profoundest 
lessons. For when we realise that varied develop- 
ment accompanies love through the years, we 
gather the rich values of experience into an ideal 
consciousness that moves on apace with added 
power. Thus understanding plays a greater part 
in our affections, love becomes calmer and wiser, 
filling the inner spaces where once we would have 
been disturbed. Then, marvellous to relate, we 
discover that at each turning-point love has some 
new joy commingled with the compensation that 
completes the latest round of tests or tribulations. 
This renewing, quickening power of love, delight- 
ing us by its noble surprises, is the greatest wonder 
of the heart. 

With the growth of more illuminating ideas of 
love there comes knowledge of the conditions under 
which it can best be expressed. While we cannot 
at will feel love, we may lower the voice, express 
ourselves in gentler ways, with more kindness and 
considerateness. We may also emulate the best 
qualities our friends manifest. For example, here 
is a man of seventy years who always speaks in the 
same pleasant tone, with a kindly smile. His wife 
testifies that in her forty years of married life she 
has never heard him speak in an aiigry tone, 
although he has had abundant provocation. This 
is a great thing to be able to say of a man. To be 



The Law of Love 347 

thus kind and pleasant is to go very far towards 
manifesting the tenderest love. 

Again, when there is a division within the self 
and it is plain that one's inheritance does not 
foster the expression of love, one may positively 
refuse to identify the self with the unloving traits 
that have been handed down. If obstinate, dis- 
agreeable, selfish in disposition, yet courteous, 
kind, pleasant, when in company and with friends, 
one may group the disagreeable traits manifested 
at home under the head of "the old self" that is 
being conquered, identifying the true self with the 
gentler qualities. Each day one may make deter- 
mined effort to express the ideal self, turning from 
the old as from an enemy, withdrawing the atten- 
tion, hence the life, and bestowing it upon the 
ideal. Moreover one may rely upon the subcon- 
scious responses, remembering the law stated in 
another chapter that an activity once started in 
vigorous motion tends to perpetuate itself. 

The efficiency of love is thus seen in its determina- 
tion to find a way, find some way, however many 
may have failed. To be sure, one must sometimes 
chronicle the sad fact that husband or wife, mother 
or son, does not love sufficiently, really does not 
love, or a way would be found. But it is not easy 
to condemn if we are determined to know every 
factor. The most wilfully self-centred person may 
be turned from selfishness to love if one utter the 



34 8 Human Efficiency 

right word, approaching in the gentlest spirit, 
ready to forgive until seventy times seven. Love 
cannot afford to admit that love is not present in 
the other. The love that opens wide the heart 
when the world would condemn awakens a wonder- 
ful response. The man or woman who has been 
most hateful, debased, or sensuous, may become 
one of the most zealous workers in love's behalf 
when the heart is touched. A kindly word, a 
simple deed done almost without thought, may be 
the turning-point in the life of the one who hears. 
Religion can accomplish what all other influences 
fail to attain. 1 

Over against some of the sternest scenes in 
human life it is ever our lot to witness we sometimes 
meet the greatest tenderness of which the heart is 
capable. Now we are pained by the unaccountable 
gruffness and animality of man, and now touched 
with the tenderest sentiment from within, as if a 
listening angel heard the heart's dismay and 
answered with a gentle message filled with the 
love of heaven, lest in our bewilderment we should 
lose faith. Again, one is stirred to the depths by 
the ingratitude of men, pushed rudely aside, 

x See the wonderful record of conversions narrated by Harold 
Begbie, in Twice-born Men, and Souls in Action; New York, 1910. 
In these two striking books the author has with singular .fidelity 
to psychological principles stated the crises of the heart, the 
changes from lower to higher through which a regeneration of 
character was accomplished. 



The Law of Love 349 

harshly spoken to, or left utterly alone when the 
heart is most hungry; but forthwith to be shown 
anew the fulness and beauty of the divine love 
which comforts, cheers, even ministers unto us as 
a person might minister. Thus by contrasts and 
reactions we begin to know the glories and the 
blessings of heavenly affection. Thus we see that 
love at its best is the divine heart quickening the 
souls of men. 

"Behold," says St. John, "what manner of love 
the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should 
be called children of God : and such we are. " Con- 
sider how beautiful and glorious is the heritage to 
be children of Him who is love itself, who for love's 
sake has sent us forth into the joys of being. Al- 
ready children of God, " it is not yet made manifest 
what we shall be, " for sometime we are to be men 
and women of God, to manifest in love's fulness 
the power of the divine in us. This much we know : 
that when we attain unto manhood's estate we 
shall be like the Father — a being filled, literally 
filled with love, one in whom there is no hatred, 
no jealousy, envy, or enmity. Merely to have this 
hope, the beloved disciple assures us, is already to 
begin to be purified. 

Then, too, how sure is the sign which love gives 
us. "We know that we have passed out of death 
into life because we love the brethren. He that 
loveth not abideth in death." Love forthwith 



350 Human Efficiency 

prompts us to do something for our fellows, a deed 
that has life in it, that involves giving up some- 
thing on our part. Only by opening the heart of 
compassion can we expect the divine love to enter 
in. It does not suffice to love in thought, to utter 
love with the lips ; but we are counselled to love 
in very deed and truth. That is, love becomes 
objective and is fulfilled both in service and in 
idea. We possess the truth or reality of love 
only through this its complete manifestation. 
When we pass thus into adequate expression we 
know that we have found the true reality not 
merely because of the sincere and full response 
of the human heart but because of the divine 
spirit conferred upon us. This experience gives a 
confidence not otherwise known, and the power 
to ask and receive whatever is needed for the 
complete life. 

When we have thus felt the quickening life of 
love, it is reasonable to become persuasive and 
say, " Beloved, let us love one another: for love is 
of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of 
God, and knoweth God. " Until we have felt the 
divine touch it seems absurd to be told that we 
ought to love, for we do not feel love. The best 
that we can do is to put ourselves in conditions 
likely to invite the divine quickening. One of 
these is attained through appreciative understand- 
ing of what God is as the Father. The mere fact 



The Law of Love 351 

of our existence is one clue. But the supreme idea 
is that of the true starting-point for all philosophi- 
cal thought, the thought that begins with God. 
Hence we ascend to the realisation that love is not 
known primarily because men love but because the 
Father loves us. "Herein is love, not that we 
loved God, but that he loved us. . . . We love 
because he first loved us." Moreover, the Father 
so loved us that he made full manifestation of 
Himself through an incarnation which wholly 
covers the needs of men and points the compre- 
hensive way to the perfect life. Herein is love 
made perfect — through union of the divine with 
the human. 

Thus again the idea is the greatest help, for we 
realise the high end set before the love that is 
manifested in humanity ; we have a mode of thought 
grounded in a secure first principle. Hitherto we 
may have tried to think upwards to find God, 
and partly failed; we may even have expected 
to see Him. Now we realise that "no man hath 
beheld God at any time, " but that if we love one 
another "God abideth in us." The fruits that 
follow prove this. The love of God and humanity 
arises within us, and the desire to keep the com- 
mandments, that is, be true to the promptings of 
the Spirit. God hath given us of His Spirit — 
that is the essence of the matter. We now have 
the inmost incentive, and also the true principle 



35 2 Human Efficiency 

of thought. Hence the precept is no longer irk- 
some to us when we are assured that we " ought* ' 
to love one another. 

Thus we once more realise that love is the life 
of man, for we see how much deeper is the conver- 
sion that touches the heart. We also realise that 
the eye must be single. Whatever we unquali- 
fiedly love affects the whole life. When I love 
God then shall I live by love, opening wide the 
heart to all my fellows, then shall I know in truth 
that " God is love. " Yet the same realisation that 
deepens our appreciation of the divine love shows 
that it is inseparable from the divine wisdom, for 
the two are one in essence. Likewise in man we 
see that masculine and feminine, reason and the 
heart, are one in essence and in ideal, awaiting 
only the union which this complete consecration 
to the Father creates within us. Granted this 
central insight, we have an ultimate principle of 
thought and a fundamental guide to conduct. 
He who has thus been unified can find unity, order, 
beauty everywhere, transcending in foresight at 
least the discords and misdeeds of men, and 
beholding in anticipation the time when all men 
shall be united in love with the Father and with 
their fellowmen. 



CHAPTER XIV 

MORAL EFFICIENCY 

THE greatest problem in the moral order centres 
about the will, namely, the question of awaken- 
ing manhood, the arousing of a consciousness of 
responsibility, the quickening of conscience, the 
development of character. But before those of us 
who have the moral welfare of mankind seriously 
at heart can meet this fundamental need in the 
wisest manner we must come to terms with 
another central issue, the insistent question, What 
is worth while? We are also compelled of course 
to deal with the problem of evil. For many, 
however, the solution of this problem is inseparably 
bound up with the discovery of a goal which shall 
enlist all man's powers in behalf of the right. 
Hence there is an urgent call for an ideal to which 
we may give full allegiance, one that shall resolve 
our conflicts, overcome suppressions, set our 
energies free, and ennoble our attitude towards 
mankind. We are fully persuaded of the value of 
loyalty. We know that we should be practical, 
beginning at a wisely chosen point and working 
2 3 353 



354 Human Efficiency 

towards a clearly defined end. But we are often 
at a loss to know what cause is worthy of our 
zeal, how to apply our loyalty to advantage. 
Thus uncertain and in a measure unstable, we 
often work with a sense of profound dissatisfac- 
tion, doing as well as we can in the field at hand, 
trusting that somehow the harvest will ripen 
and that competent reapers will make good our 
short-comings. 

This indeterminate state of mind is partly due 
to the fact that we do not more valiantly face the 
issues of moral theory in search of a unifying 
principle. We are stronger in the domain of desire, 
emotional zeal, than in the kingdom of the idea. 
What is demanded is sturdier analysis of rival 
conceptions of the good. By this one means 
something more than the study of arguments in 
favour or against the notion that the good is 
pleasure, or the contentions with respect to the 
origin of morals, the nature of conscience, and the 
basis of moral obligation. I hope to show that 
the problem is partly one of analysis of tempera- 
ments, partly that of insight into tendencies for 
which our age emphatically stands. That is, the 
question of the greatest good is inseparable from 
the larger issues of the interpretation of human 
nature. 

Such analysis appears to be out of the question 
for the most of us because it seems to call for 



Moral Efficiency 355 

careful study of the great doctrines whose history 
involves Greek life at its best, also Christian life 
in its various stages, to say nothing of moral ideals 
that are partly traceable to more distant sources. 
But the situation is not so difficult as it appears, 
for there are comparatively few typical moral 
attitudes, and these appear and reappear through- 
out human history. These attitudes are readily 
discoverable in our time because germane to human 
nature. Without unduly complicating our prob- 
lem we may examine the moral issues close at 
hand. By noting their excesses and defects we 
shall make headway in the development of an 
adequate moral ideal. I shall first consider cer- 
tain types of moral consciousness in which zeal 
for a given moral standard is overdone, then turn 
to more recent types in which the moral standard 
is by no means strong enough. Thus contrast 
will teach us an important lesson. 

It is characteristic of some of the most zealous 
moral people in the world to state their ideals in 
negative and prohibitory terms. These leaders 
not only tell the world what ought not to be done, 
but insist on their central doctrine in a spendthrift 
fashion. Ordinarily, too, they are strongly dogma- 
tic in tone, and exclude peoples of other nationalities 
as well as those at hand who are not so fortunate 
as to be orthodox Christians. Hence you will 
find them decrying and condemning as often as 



35 6 Human Efficiency 

supporting and commending. Now, a universal 
principle is necessarily in some sense exclusive, 
otherwise it cannot be a standard, representative 
of the best. But it must exclude in a totally 
different manner, and because it is founded on a 
basis that lies much deeper than merely tempera- 
mental partisanship or national faith. 

The moral ideal which shall enlist our full 
activity must be grounded in human nature 
rationally interpreted, in the moral order itself, 
and this order includes all mankind. It is not 
primarily a question of time, place, person, nation, 
sacred book, code of laws, or religion; but of con- 
science, righteousness, the moral law. Hence 
while assimilating the loyalty of the human spirit 
we must pass far beyond the negations of personal 
preference and will. In what immediately follows 
I shall try to throw light on moral ideals by recast- 
ing certain negative doctrines in positive form. 

First let us consider the self-coercive attitude 
which some of our most zealous moral friends 
assume. I emphasise the fact that these strenu- 
ous zealots are self-coercive in order to credit 
them with practising what they preach, but their 
misplaced energy is chiefly directed against others. 
These people are extremely capable, and one finds 
them occupying prominent positions, for example, 
in schools, or in institutions devoted to social 
reform. Ordinarily they are dogmatic in tone, 



Moral Efficiency 357 

arbitrary, autocratic, cock-sure, and on occasion 
capable of becoming violent partisans. They retain 
their positions rather through force of character 
than through knowledge of human nature or human 
history. The will rather than the intellect is their 
chief power, and if their wills were not sometimes 
softened through the sweetness of their affections 
it would be almost impossible to live with them. 
They are persons of pronounced conviction, with 
the strongest preferences for people and things. 
Competent specialists, they are given positions 
of trust because there is work to be done and they 
are able to make people do it. Highly executive 
in type they know how to organise their work in 
all its departments so as to call the utmost from 
their co-workers. Unsparing of their own time and 
energy, they expect others to be unsparing, too, 
and this is where the trouble begins. For without 
regard to the condition their co-workers are in 
they will suddenly spring upon them with new 
work to be done. Their argument seems to be that 
since there is work to be done the individual must 
be sacrificed to the whole. Sometimes this means 
that the co-worker suffers most who is most fit, 
who demands most consideration, and who just 
then is least in a condition to serve. 

Now, a prime requisite of moral efficiency is 
adjustment to the work to be done in accordance 
with the state of mental and physical health of 



35 8 Human Efficiency 

those who perform it. If a teacher or leader hold 
himself to his task by sheer force of will, when the 
organism is unfit, there will be difficulty from 
the beginning. The assumption is that because the 
leader is capable of accomplishing a vast amount of 
work therefore all subordinates should exert them- 
selves to the full, despite the fact that they differ 
in temperament, in health, and in capacity. The 
first fallacy hides the unfitness of the leader, the 
second is the assumption that all can work alike. 
Charity begins at home in more senses than one, 
and it is a duty of the true moral reformer to keep 
himself in prime condition for his work, the work 
that he can do best. Each co-worker is a human 
being with individual rights, and no one knows 
so well, or should know so well, what he can do 
and how he can most wisely accomplish it as the 
worker himself. Hence it is wrong for the leader 
to undertake to be the judge. It goes without say- 
ing that the moral worker who is genuinely efficient 
and knows his powers can on occasion work an 
unusual number of hours at heroic labour. 

To apply the moral lash to those who do not 
conform to one's personal standard is to be guilty 
of sheer officiousness. It is not the leader's prero- 
gative to hold others up to the mark, breaking in 
on their privacy, taking them to task because they 
do not accomplish more. This means a hard life 
for all concerned, a self-driven, nervous life likely 



Moral Efficiency 359 

to end in utter collapse and failure. The leader's 
part should be to set an example of prudence, 
moderation, and equanimity, supported by a 
well-trained organism. His privilege is to take the 
lead in such a way as to reveal opportunity after 
opportunity, showing what glorious occasions for 
service exist all about us. It is his part no doubt 
to awaken enthusiasm and enlist co-operative 
activity to the full. Yet he must know that 
neither enthusiasm nor loyalty can take the place 
of rest and sleep, that he is working with and for 
individuals, not a collection of units. 

The strenuous coerciveness of which I speak no 
doubt arises from a high degree of conscientious- 
ness. It indicates a noble moral standard, nothing 
short of perfection itself. But it is largely mistaken 
in method, neglectful of the truth that the moral 
life cannot be forced but is a growth that may be 
encouraged. It undertakes to impose a standard 
on people who have not reflectively arrived at 
it for themselves. It is exacting, insistent, and 
springs in part from a mistaken notion of sympathy. 
Since it demands perfection and never finds it, 
this attitude is one in which nobody is approved of, 
nothing is strongly commended save the goal that 
cannot be attained. The result is not only a state 
of continual nagging but a sort of adverse criticism 
that runs over into pessimism, howbeit its devo- 
tees believe they are optimists of the true stamp. 



360 Human Efficiency 

Thus it regards men and women as children who 
are treated as a fatigued and impatient mother 
treats her children when she has too much to do. 
Its victims are far more aware of the wrongs of the 
world than of the forces that make for righteous- 
ness. Hence they substitute for knowledge of 
moral history a purely local incentive, and in 
place of consecration to the moral law they put 
devotion to a particular cause, endeavouring to 
make out that it is the most important issue in the 
land. Stronger in character than their associates, 
they usually hold out longer, hence appear to be 
morally successful, and are revered as models by 
the community. Thus their localism stands in 
the way of sane moral progress. 

Worse still, these supposed reformers sometimes 
conceal commercial and other private interests 
behind the alleged moral ideal. There is indeed a 
close kinship between women of this strenuous 
type and men who are typical representatives of 
the hard, grasping commercialism of the soul- 
less corporation. Both are below the standard of 
the modern principle of industrial efficiency for, as 
we have seen, the principles of scientific manage- 
ment respect the rights and limitations of the 
worker, substituting for the overbearing attitude 
that of careful study of the work, the worker, and 
the conditions most favourable to all concerned. 
It is plain that the new principles are already more 



Moral Efficiency 361 

moral than much that passes current as moral. 
Unless our standard shall be as comprehensive and 
fair as that of industrial efficiency those of us who 
are moral leaders might well go to school to learn 
the new science of business. 

Strictly speaking, however, the energies implied 
in this coerciveness can become of positive value 
only so far as these self-willed people are brought 
to terms by their own consciousness. The true 
moral ideal cannot be developed in terms of the 
will alone. There must be genuine knowledge of 
the whole self and of human nature. So long as a 
person feels it necessary to hold himself and his 
associates by the magnetic power of will, he is not 
yet sure either of himself or of his cause. One 
whose cause is really moral should know that 
things moral do not depend on human wills, 
and that righteousness has powers of its own. 
The best that each co-worker can give should 
be inspired by a higher incentive than that of the 
leader's will. Each co-worker should be regard- 
ed as an organic contributor to the moral group 
in question. Each is a child of God, hence in 
a measure a law unto himself, working for God 
and the right above the heads of leaders and 
enemies alike. Therefore each must have opportu- 
nity to become efficient in ways of his own. The 
moral spirit realises itself through men: it is not 
created and cannot be regulated by the human will. 



362 Human Efficiency 

At best the officious interposer is one who arouses 
us in our apathy and shows that changes in our 
mode of operations are imperative. It remains for 
the more reflective, better-poised, dispassionate 
person to take the lead. Thus one learns by a 
study of the coercively strenuous leader what not 
to do, instead of learning what one ought to do. 

Again, moral negativity is seen in the case of 
hyper-conscientiousness. This ordinarily implies 
an over-scrupulous examination of motives, lead- 
ing to indecision, weakness of will. But one refers 
rather to people who are actuated by an undue 
sense of obligation, who have a mistaken sense of 
duty. There are those who on principle choose the 
more difficult of two alternatives, the hardest task 
at hand, primarily because it is hardest, hence — 
though irksome — a duty. Spurred by what is 
supposably the best sort of conscience, these 
people hold themselves to a line of work for which 
they are unfit, convinced that they are faithful 
to the highest moral ideal. 

Now, to object to the weighing of alternatives 
and the analysis of motives in this extremely con- 
scientious way is not to say that self-scrutiny 
should cease but that it should be more thorough 
and incisive. To be fundamental in such analysis is 
to discover what work one can do best and to pro- 
ceed in accordance with a purpose to fulfil the self. 
To choose the hardest task on principle is not to be 



Moral Efficiency 363 

conscientious in the best sense of the word, since 
conscience rationally interpreted bids us choose 
the greater good. To seek the greater good may- 
or may not be to do that which is harder. Of 
course there are unpleasant and difficult obliga- 
tions which we have assumed and which we must 
meet in order to fulfil our duty. But it might 
have been possible to make a wiser decision at 
the outset, one which would have enlisted our 
joy and called our best powers into activity. 

While my work is a task, while I am compelled 
to hold myself to it, I am unable either to do my 
best for humanity or satisfy myself. When I am 
doing my best my energies act freely, and it is not 
necessary to remind myself at every turn that I 
am doing what is right. When I do my best I 
give even beyond what I supposably ought to give. 
That which I deeply and truly want to do and find 
joy in doing is most likely to be what I ought to do, 
what I can do well as a member of human society, 
possessing individual gifts. Prompted to do the 
work which is peculiarly my own, it would be 
wrong for me to hold myself down to a line of 
work which on mere theory, or because of some 
one's advice, I assume to be right for me. That is 
right which enlists my full selfhood and enables 
me to be morally productive in high degree. A 
mistaken sense of duty is the equivalent of constant 
inhibition, or a burden under which a weary 



364 Human Efficiency 

labourer struggles and staggers. The true sense 
of duty is not puritanical, however great the moral 
vigour latent in the puritanical conscience. What 
is called for is life, not inhibition. Our morality 
is negative until it find expression in eager joy, 
until it bring peaceful satisfaction. No doubt 
many of us begin the moral life in earnest by doing 
what we believe we ought to do in all seriousness, 
and possibly with a keen sense of effort, since we are 
all victims of inertia. But to give for love's sake 
only is to attain a much higher moral level. 

The foregoing discussions while primarily psy- 
chological have afforded much evidence that it is 
right to express the self without the puritanical 
disturbances of conscience which hinder the reali- 
sation of the type. Our plea for the understanding, 
mastery, and wise use of energy, although essentially 
prudential may be restated as a moral argument. 
It is surely right to overcome inertias and inhi- 
bitions, and develop our powers to the full. This 
we have seen is an ideal that evokes enthusiasm, 
whereas stern moral precepts suppress our ardour. 
We are never satisfied if, doing what we take to be 
our duty, we have a deep desire to be doing some- 
thing else which we believe we can do better. 

We can render no greater service to our brothers 
than to help them to become the individuals they 
will to be, wholly content to see them working in 
different fields, cherishing beliefs other than our 



Moral Efficiency 365 

own, governed by different standards. Nothing 
is more important for each of us than to be faithful 
to the ideal as we see it. Hence it is with perfect 
right that we grant to others the freedom of self- 
expression, remaining tolerant, charitable, and 
considerate to the last degree ; and that we indivi- 
dually observe the conditions most favourable to 
ideal self-realisation. To live and let live is the 
duty of man. "The ascetics and the Puritans 
made this great mistake, " says a recent writer. 
"They thought that duty was doing what is hard 
and what you hate. The truth is that duty is doing 
what is hard and what you love. "* 

The reason for this stern sense of duty is found 
in the theology by which it is inspired. Doubtless 
many of the sterling leaders of the world have 
been of Calvinistic temper, that is, those who 
upheld the moral law with great vigour. But when 
a follower endeavours to adopt the same attitude 
he is apt to become a devotee of authority, emu- 
lating the leader by engaging in good deeds from 
a mere sense of obligation. Thus a man will adopt 
a child, give a large sum of money to an institution, 
or in behalf of charity, not because of genuine 
inner guidance, nor because his knowledge shows 
him what is best for society. By becoming charit- 
able on general principles one appears to be adding 

1 E. L. Cabot, Everyday Ethics, p. 158. Mrs. Cabot's book is 
one of the best on practical ethics. 



366 Human Efficiency 

to the sum of morality in the world. The result is 
too apt to be an increase of self -righteousness. To 
give in this way is negative, and under such con- 
ditions a man usually gives something which he 
can easily do without. A positive gift is made 
because out of the fulness of the heart one is 
prompted to share, even to give at a sacrifice. 

Again, theological considerations enter through 
acceptance of negative conceptions of the incarna- 
tion, the atonement, or the death on the cross. 
If you believe that Christ came and was put to 
death because of the sorry plight of man, your 
emphasis will be negative throughout. Hence you 
will dwell on the uniqueness, the exclusiveness of 
the incarnation, rather than on its universality 
and on the humanity of Jesus. You will accordingly 
lay stress on the death and resurrection, instead of 
the life and the glorification. You will say that he 
who "loseth" his life shall be saved, instead of 
dwelling on the deeper truth that he who "finds" 
his life is the one who exemplifies the standard. 
Worse still, you will dwell on the wickedness of 
man, painting the blackness of sin, instead of 
pointing out that it is righteous conduct that 
avails. 

If we turn from the teachings to the Master him- 
self, with these clues in mind, the case is still 
clearer. Jesus was by no means a passive or 
negative man. Although a man of peace he came 



Moral Efficiency 367 

to bring a sword. He stated principles which 
brought divisions among his hearers from the 
first. He inculcated a positive series of precepts, 
lived according to them himself, and was constant 
unto the end. He did not meet death as a disap- 
pointed prophet, a supposed regal Messiah who 
had failed to establish his kingdom. No such 
power could have gone forth from him had this been 
the case. His death was not a sacrifice but a 
victory. He valiantly stood by his faith to the 
uttermost, taking the course which seemed neces- 
sary to send forth victorious power into the world. 
Hence the moral doctrine which is founded on his 
teaching should be positive and constructive if 
true to his leadership. 

These considerations lead us to a fresh estimate 
of another moral principle frequently discussed, 
namely, self-sacrifice. It is safe to say that no one 
is ever really satisfied with the usual treatment of 
this subject. It is never convincingly shown, even 
by the greatest of moral philosophers, that self- 
sacrifice is wholly good. It is ordinarily spoken 
of with apologies. It is a "sad necessity," some 
say, a "glorious madness, " involving a leap in the 
dark. It is eulogised as the noblest element in the 
moral life, and then its eulogists tell of the tre- 
mendous mistakes made by its devotees. To be 
wholly given over to it is to be one-sided, weak, 
self -suppressed. Strangely enough it tends to run 



368 Human Efficiency 

over into selfishness, so that the mother, for ex- 
ample who has been praised as its ideal representa- 
tive becomes its taskmaster, exacting even greater 
sacrifices from the growing generation. The 
typical case is that of the woman who works 
labouriosly to send her daughter to college, and 
who expects her daughter to give up a promising 
career and settle down in an outgrown village as 
her companion and servant. Another typical 
case is that of the young man of promise who 
wishes to marry and make a home of his own, but 
who is supposed to take care of parents who are 
inferior in quality and power. Then there are the 
sacrifices a reformer makes for a cause, the sac- 
rifices of a religious devotee who would like to be a 
scholar. In many of these cases we cannot help 
believing that the higher good is given up for the 
lower. The world needs the best each can give, 
especially from people of power and worth. Only 
now and then are we able to say unqualifiedly 
that the sacrifice was right. 

Is not this difficulty a confession that we have 
not apprehended the moral spirit on its positive 
side? If we could somehow state the moral purpose 
in a given case in terms of consecration to a 
worthy end, we might be able to gain new insight 
into the alleged sacrifice. A moral ideal is ne- 
cessarily selective, but what is given up is not the 
crucial consideration. They are best able to work 



Moral Efficiency 369 

positively who could yield most, give up most. 
That is, they have large capacity in many direc- 
tions, could respond to numerous demands, could 
sacrifice their powers. But instead they inhibit, 
check, conquer. Therefore it is what they really do 
accomplish that avails, as in the case of a minister 
who might have been a lawyer, could have devoted 
himself to money-getting, but who through his 
spiritual activities realises his higher selfhood. 
The real question therefore turns about the choice 
of the greater good. This is most likely to be in 
line with the larger self-realisation which gives 
genuine satisfaction. What is needed is a scale of 
moral values by which to discover the greater 
good. 

Still another illustration of an essentially 
negative attitude is found in the views ordinarily 
held in regard to non-resistance. The command 
to refrain from resisting evil is either rejected as 
wholly impractical or is relegated to those 
poor misguided mortals who fashion their lives 
after an Oriental model and thereby supposably 
become passive. But he truly practises non-re- 
sistance who on occasion could contend outwardly 
with great pow r er. He is free to resist or not 
according to his guidance. Because free and 
strong he has the power to refrain from giving 
blow for blow; and instead returns love, tenderness, 
sympathy, considerateness. Master of his powers, 
24 



37° Human Efficiency 

he is able to give expression to the one that will 
bring the larger moral consequence. He depends 
on the silent, interior forces — the greatest forces 
in the world. His attitude is positive in a far 
greater degree than that of the man who gives a 
tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye. When 
I love my enemies, when I am grateful even under 
persecution then indeed have I begun to be moral. 
Finally, an essentially negative attitude is 
manifested by those who give free play to general 
zeal in behalf of humanity. This usually means 
the laudation of the common types, the celebra- 
tion of everything that is elemental in human 
nature, the unqualified praise of people who have 
no standard. The result is that the leadership 
of the best is forgotten or ignored, and mere demo- 
cracy becomes the ideal. This point of view is 
usually advocated by reactionists who do not 
yet understand what they are reacting against. 
They are people who abound in thoughts but 
who have no thought. Able to make brilliant 
sallies of wit and learning, they utter many telling 
remarks, some of which strike home with great 
force and do a reformative work in the world. 
We need these vigorous wits to shake us out of 
our conservative moods. But to take their 
alternative seriously would be to adopt a dead- 
levelism. The merely elemental in our nature, the 
Whitmanesque, carries us no arther than emo- 



Moral Efficiency 371 

tional expression, or mere self -utterance. Without 
a standard, life easily degenerates into sensuality 
and the commonplace. Hence the merely elemental 
man is a negative factor in human society, one who 
rejoices in the mere openness of the road on which 
he travels, the freedom from constraint, the 
departure from conventionality. In contrast 
with this, the genuinely moral man realises that 
freedom is indeed nothing to boast of, since he 
would fain be bound once for all to the life of 
righteousness. The moral world is very far from 
being an elemental plain in which one thing is as 
good as another; it is topped by a mountain of 
endeavour in which the alternatives ever grow 
less as greater heights are attained. 

All these cases involve elements of permanent 
value — the strenuous moral zeal that needs to be 
tempered, the profound sense of duty of the one 
who is over-conscientious, the insistence on law 
of the Calvinist, the devotion implied in self- 
sacrifice, the love for humanity of those who 
eulogise the elemental. Can we restate all these 
in such a manner as to preserve them? Yes, in 
terms of moral efficiency through social self-realisa- 
tion. This means, in the first place, a full and 
frank return to the Greek moral conception, that 
virtue is natural. For it is man in his manifoldness 
who shall become moral. It is truly right for me 
to cultivate all sides of my nature, to express my- 



37 2 Human Efficiency 

self to the full, live the complete life. To do this 
I must know and organise all my powers, so that 
virtue may become a habit, may bring peace and 
satisfaction. I must know myself well enough to 
see what I can do best, having first learned what 
I can do and what I cannot do. Having made 
these discoveries it behooves me to take care of 
myself so as to be able to contribute my best on 
all occasions. 

Happiness is surely one of the tests of this moral 
ideal : to this extent the Hedonist is right. Pleasure 
is not the good, cannot be an end in itself, yet if I 
do not have joy in my work, if I do not foster 
happiness and permit my associates to take 
satisfaction in their work, I am not fully moral. 
If the moral zealot is ordinarily too severe the 
Hedonist is too lax. Happiness is the rightful 
accompaniment of the moral life, and is most 
likely to be added to moral conduct when that 
conduct springs from the spontaneous desire to 
give full measure running over, in contrast with 
mere work for duty's sake. He who maintains his 
organism in a morally efficient condition is likely 
to be happy and to arouse happiness in others. 
The life of feeling has a rightful place inasmuch 
as feeling is a part of our nature. The moral ideal 
which brings genuine satisfaction is manifold in 
type, taking its clue from the manifoldness of 
human nature. The ancient motto, " nothing 



Moral Efficiency 373 

to excess, M applies as necessarily to one side of our 
nature as to another. Hence there is as good 
reason to guard against intellectualism as to avoid 
overdoing the element of pleasure. 

It may be objected that the thought required 
to keep the organism in prime condition, to hus- 
band energy here and organise it there, involves 
an impeding self -consciousness ; for who wishes to 
guard his actions every moment lest he spend his 
energies in excess? If we give so much time to 
self- training are we not likely in the end to develop 
a new form of self-centredness? In contrast with 
this painful process, to be moral is to work with a 
will, forgetting oneself in loyal service. 

The reply has been given in an earlier chapter, 
that is, it is not necessary to watch the play of 
energy every minute lest one overdraw the supply. 
Power is acquired through use, and what we are 
pleading for is fulness of life, for the right of every 
side of our nature to have its place, to play its 
part and become thoroughly moral. There is no 
single power, quality, faculty, or organ that is 
exclusively moral, or even authoritatively so. To 
be moral is to be a person in the complete sense of 
the word, not to set a single faculty apart as hard 
taskmaster over the rest. Conscience shall enter 
into every part of our being, transfiguring all that 
is in us. It is fulness of life, we insist, not severe 
meagreness, that is desirable, This is the truth in 



374 Human Efficiency 

the contentions of those who plead for democracy 
in the moral realm, who insist that one thing is as 
good as another. Everything is indeed moral, 
or may become so : what is needed is the organising 
system of a scale of values. Things, qualities, and 
powers are good in relation, in their right place. x 
Hence we insist that there can be no morality 
without order. In fact, morality is orderliness, 
not only the possession but the realisation of an 
organising system. 

Now, who can rightly organise and apportion 
the various tendencies of his nature without giving 
a certain degree of attention to the powers that are 
active within him and to the consequences which 
their exercise entails? Who if he would be thor- 
oughly moral can do aught less than to give heed 
enough to the nature and scope of his energies 
to maintain his organism in prime condition for 
efficient service? It were better to begin as one 
can hold out. Therefore we insist that to be moral 
is to attain a condition of mental and physical 
efficiency. This calls for more analysis and self- 
consciousness at a certain stage of the moral 
journey, but the immediate object is to make 
virtue a habit. The more we give our activities 
over to wisely acquired habits the more power we 
should have freely to give ourselves to the interest 

1 See Professor G. H. Palmer's The Nature of Goodness, Hough- 
ton, Mifflin and Co, 



Moral Efficiency 375 

at hand. We are not proposing that human loyal- 
ties shall be bestowed at random but upon ends 
that are really worth while. 

Self-sacrifice is good, we still say in accordance 
with this ideal of moral efficiency, but we prefer 
to call it devotion or consecration. It is what I do, 
what I give, that avails. If I give of my full self, 
calling all my powers into exercise, I shall not 
give much thought to that which I give up or 
abstain from. The probability is that the poten- 
tialities which might have made me a man of 
affairs, an artist, a scholar, or what not, will be 
called into expression through this my chosen 
mode of life, apparently so far from the world of 
my earlier ambitions. Whatever I am, I shall 
find exercise for the fulness of my powers provided 
I find a mode of life that calls me out at my best. 
For one is made morally efficient, not from behind 
but from above, when an absorbing purpose en- 
lists all that is within. 

Of far more consequence, then, than the self- 
consciousness required to make my organism 
efficient, or the sacrifice through which I become 
unselfish, is the absorbing interest which inspires 
me to do my best. Called into action by this I 
shall not mind either the time or the pain involved 
in the years of preparation. If I sacrifice myself I 
shall scarcely know it. What I need is the moral 
incentive which shall make a man of me, call me 



376 Human Efficiency • 

into fulness of being. It is a great help in the pro- 
gress towards this larger life to conclude that it is 
right for me to do what I want to, right for me 
to be happy, right to be young and spontaneous, 
right to be and to express rather than to check and 
to give up. For there need be no conflict between 
what I deeply will to be and what I ought to be, 
between self-realisation, and service. What I pro- 
foundly want to be and to do, if I really know my- 
self, is at once what I can do best and that by means 
of which I can most truly serve. I can actually be 
both a Greek and a Christian, realising Plato's 
ideal of aesthetic order among the virtues and 
imbuing the Greek form of virtue with the Chris- 
tian spirit. At heart I am already a moral being. 
I do not know myself until I thus apprehend my- 
self as moral, a being in whom order may prevail 
to the highest degree, who may at once serve and 
have a joyfully good time in the mere fact of 
existence. 

We no longer say that the nature of the finite 
will is to assert itself selfishly, that in itself it is 
evil. Agreeing rather with Socrates we declare 
that man sins through ignorance, since the will 
is not in itself evil. The power within us which 
wil s to go ahead, have a good time regardless of 
others and of consequences, is precisely the power 
which, when lifted up, when accompanied by 
enlightenment, enables us to be unitary moral 



Moral Efficiency 377 

beings. Man is not born unregenerate, he is 
moral and arrives at moral self -consciousness. 
What is needed is that profound self-knowledge 
which shall show that the interests of self and of 
humanity are one. As a self I am inevitably and 
for ever tied in with my fellows. What I sincerely 
want can be mine only in case I make the utmost 
of the social relationships which in my ignorance 
appeared to be weights and chains. 

Finally, in this ideal of self-realisation through 
moral efficiency there is a real remedy for the 
officiousness referred to above, and for all anxiety 
and impatience. When I realise that the moral 
spirit is greater than the life of the individual, more 
extensive than the social group or than any insti- 
tution, I learn that it is not dependent on me or 
upon my immediate associates. Rome is large and 
there are many roads leading to it. My road may 
be a very good one but I have no right to be exclu- 
sive. I may well make the utmost of it, calling 
attention to its points of excellence. But the real 
consideration is the end that is being attained 
through all the roads. To be anxious were to 
forget that the right is universal, that God is 
still in His world. I may not see how the right 
can be achieved by a route so circuitous as my 
neighbours', but my first interest should be to 
acquaint myself with his strange road, to welcome 
and seek to know my neighbour as a human being 



37 8 Human Efficiency 

who is probably as nearly moral as I am, remember- 
ing that truly to know any man is to gain insight 
into his purpose. 

Does the acceptance of this standard seem to 
deprive us of all reason for zeal, now that we have 
discovered that man is at heart moral, that the 
balance of power in human nature is in the right- 
eous direction? No, what it takes from us is the 
anxious, officious, overbearing tendency which 
makes moral theory and moral reform obnoxious. 
When instead of hounding our neighbours to be 
good, calling them to judgment, and aristocrati- 
cally condemning them, we set about being 
exemplary moral individuals, making the best use 
of our powers, the chances are that we shall make 
real headway. If nothing succeeds like success, 
surely no triumph is more inspiring than the moral 
victory. To be moral, I insist, is not to be dis- 
agreeable, autocratic, dry, but to be a well-molded, 
joyous person abounding in life. Of course no one 
likes dry aphorisms and moralisations. What we 
like is life and life in its integrity includes the 
moral law, is founded on it. What we object to is 
an abstraction, a reform or principle for its own 
sake. We want a true human being who has all the 
impulses and encounters all the temptations. It is 
through fulness of life, through exercise and 
expression that a way out of and beyond our 
temptations shall be found. 



Moral Efficiency 379 

" Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no 
more," is the word of the really efficient moral 
teacher. For he sees through the sin to the heart, 
the moral selfhood struggling into fulness of life. 
To be condemned to sin no more is at once the 
severest and the most encouraging punishment. 
It springs from righteous judgment and sets a 
high standard for the discerning. Hence the 
possibilities of service are increased a hundred- 
fold. Never again can we indulge in the usual 
estimates or put up with ordinary methods of 
reform. We have passed far beyond the conven- 
tional scheme of salvation or regeneration to the 
discovery of the soul with which man is really 
born. Now and forevermore it is incumbent on 
us to penetrate to the heart, calling the struggling 
moral ego into more complete self-possession. 

Even he, this supremely efficient moral leader, 
found it important to withdraw from the crowd, 
sometimes alone with the disciples, sometimes a 
few chosen ones among them, again wholly alone. 
Even he, with all his insight and power, indulged 
in prayer, thereby making himself ready in order 
that the supreme end might be attained. With- 
out this self-preservation and increased efficiency 
Jesus would hardly have attained his end. Here 
we have concentration, devotion, carried to the 
limit, with a power that excludes all else. But 
here too we have personality realising its heights, 



380 Human Efficiency 

its depths, and beauties. With a compassion and a 
pathos unsurpassed in history the Master enters 
into the life of those around him, unstintedly 
giving of himself, considering each person's need 
as if he alone stood in want. All the rigorousness 
of the moral law is there too, and one sees where 
the strenuous leaders derived their zeal. But the 
Master has too often been emulated in form to the 
neglect of the spirit. There is one word which 
changes the whole matter and transfigures life 
beyond estimate and that word is love. Love is 
not the law but its fulfilment and the law should 
not be made paramount, coercive. When driven 
home as the officious zealots employ it what is 
really paramount is the self of the one who lashes 
his victims with puritanical fervour. It were 
better to be a mere pagan with his supposably 
11 gilded vices" known to fame as "splendid sins" 
than to pursue people in this terrible fashion. 
This indeed is sin, that is, the assertion of the 
particular over against the universal. But what we 
want is love and love recognises, does not pass by 
on the other side, love calls into being, is considerate 
tender, kind. 

One need not preach, one need not plead when 
love is found. Our sermons are too frequently 
confessions that we have naught to give, our 
arguments admissions that we cannot give a 
valid reason. When we possess love there is 



Moral Efficiency 381 

nothing further to say. Love is its own evidence, 
is all-compelling. When love sends us apart from 
the multitude it is with a reason so good that we 
need never question the time consecrated to pre- 
paration. If we love we will serve and if we love 
we will realise the self. Love alone gives satis- 
faction and love alone makes one fully efficient. 
It is love that makes happiness and love that 
bestows it. Only through love does life attain the 
moral goal and pass beyond it into the larger life 
of the Spirit. That is to say, the forms are finite, 
the moral law makes us aware of bounds, but when 
we are free we share the life of the infinite Spirit, 
and this we supremely share through love. The 
moral ideal as matter of form is stated at its best 
in terms of self-realisation through social efficiency, 
and is essentially Grecian in type ; it is love which 
saves it from being merely an ideal of individual 
culture, and love at its highest is of the Christian 
type — the love in which the human is made one 
with the divine, in which self-will is lifted up into 
complete obedience to the imbuing power of the 
Spirit. 

Thus our study of human efficiency reaches its 
culminating point. For the most part, we have 
pursued this study with the efficiency of the individ- 
ual in mind. But it is as impossible to regard 
the individual by himself as to learn the nature 
of the will apart from reason. Human nature is 



382 Human Efficiency 

established on a co-operative basis in a two-fold 
respect ; the mind exists as a co-operation of powers 
such as perception, feeling, will, reason; and the 
individual is a unit in a larger whole. The first 
problem is to attain the right adjustment between 
the various powers within us, so that worthy 
incentives shall inspire us, while reason controls 
every activity according to its value; the second 
is to adjust ourselves to our fellows so as to con- 
tribute our share of work and service yet attain 
self-realisation. Some writers maintain that the 
right social adjustment must come first before the 
individual can find his rightful place. We main- 
tain that if the individual begins by becoming 
efficient according to his type, he will be in the 
best position to approach the larger question. 

It is not possible in this volume to plead for 
this ideal of co-operation, or even to justify the 
moral ideal of self-realisation in full measure. 1 
Suffice it that in the modern movement towards 
individual efficiency a principle of co-operation is 
implied which makes it far more promising than 

1 The ethical ideal here advocated is similar in many respects 
to that of the recent ethical idealists. For an introduction to 
ethics see the following, in the order named: The Field of Ethics, 
by G. H. Palmer; MacKenzie's A Manual of Ethics, or Muir- 
head's Elements of Ethics; Palmer's The Nature of Goodness. 
These volumes contain excellent references to the literature of the 
subject. See also J. Seth's Ethical Principles. McCunn's, 
The Making of Character, is one of the best books on practical 
ethics. 



Moral Efficiency 383 

most of the schemes for social reform. With this 
ideal in view, there is no longer any reason for 
waiting until the present economic order is changed. 
Nor need we long concern ourselves with general 
questions such as that raised in the preceding 
chapter, Why is it that love has not yet conquered? 
There is in fact no reason for any sort of delay 
when it is a question of efficiency. If I learn the 
nature and power of reason and begin to be more 
rational, I shall be able to do my part to bring the 
age of reason into being. If, realising the scope 
and efficiency of love, I seriously undertake to 
order my life in such a way that it shall manifest 
love, true enduring love, I shall be preparing for 
love's fulfilment in the race. All that is needed is 
that each shall endeavour to do his part, beginning 
at home, seeking to give rather than to get, to 
co-operate rather than to control. Hitherto we 
have not devoted time enough to the science of 
life. It is time now for each to begin by noting his 
own powers, their sources, tendencies, and eli- 
gibility. The more we know about ourselves the 
more able we shall be to study and endeavour to 
improve society. He who is deeply concerned to 
make himself as efficient as possible will have little 
time to indulge in adverse criticism, anger, hatred, 
and complaint. It is within the power of every one 
of us to contribute to the science of human 
society by thus making the utmost of ourselves. 



INDEX 



Agassiz, 73 

American Magazine, 18, 130 
Ancient remains, 268 
Aristotle, 311 

Attention, 64, 72, 77, 87, 91, 
103 f., 227, 241 

Begbie, 348 
Bennett, 94 
Bergson, 320 
Black, Hugh, 85 
Browning, 330 
Buckham, 35 

Business, the science of, 2 f., 
18, 24 

Cabot, 365 
Calkins, 53 
Calvinism, 365, 371 
Carpenter, 101, 197, 222 
Character, 34, 121, 151, 187, 

198, 234 f. 
China, 213 

Concentration, 71 f., 92, 206 
Conscience, 69, 74, 118, 149, 

250, 362 f. 
Consciousness, 48, 54, 103, 117, 

122 
Control, 15, 37, 53, 73, 93, 125, 

129 f., 209; of energy, 153 
Co-operation, 3 f., 178, 361, 

382 
Co-ordination, 11, 71 f., 108 

Desire, 33, 64, 76, 78 f., 218 



385 



Disposition, 35, 59, 76, 208, 
234 f- 

Education, 13, 16,34, I2 8, 134, 
281 

Efficiency, 1, 6, 27, 129; in- 
dustrial, 2 f., 14; domestic, 
7,42, 177 f., 276; commercial, 
7, 360; individual, 9, 361; 
vocational, 13; moral, 15, 44, 
353 f-; psychological, 21 f.; 
quantitative, 23; basis of, 
29 f.; through mastery, 38, 
93, 130 f.; concentration and, 
71 f., 107, 140; education 
and, 128 f.; work and, 160 
f.; elements of, 183; of will, 
185 f. ; character and, 216; 
growth in, 240; heart of, 
242; through freedom, 273 
f.; intellectual, 304 f.; love 
and, 347; spiritual, 381 

Efficient man, the, 29 f., 90, 
144, 221, 231 f., 278 f. 

Efficient woman, the, 178 f., 
276 

Efficient worker, the, 175, 183 

Effort, 64, 198 

Emerson, 43, 66, 284, 323 

Emotion, 69, 81, 252, 329 

Energy, 15, 32, 41, 53, 128 f., 
179. 373; denned, 151 

Engine, 2, 6 

Engineer, 40 

Enterprise, 225 



386 



Index 



Enthusiasm, 83, 146 
Ethics, 12, 382 

Fatigue, 130 f., 167 
Feeling, 49, III, 252, 302 
Folks, H., 186 
Freedom, 274 f., 371 
Friendship, 282 

God, 109, 252, 294 f., 312 
Good, the, 354 f . 
Guidance, 156, 223, 269 
Gulick, 37 

Habit, 31, 101, 106 
Happiness, 373 
Heart, the, 109, ill, 251 
Hegel, 292,319 
Housewife, the, 176 f. 
Hudson, in 
Human, 276 

Imagination, 84 
Immediate, the, no, 272 
Inefficiency, 42, 94, 228 
Inhibition, 75, 80, 209 
Inner light, the, 254 
Insight, 62, 244 f. 
Intellect, 269, 302 f. 
Intuition, 69, 105, in, 145, 
248, 250, 257, 337 

James, iv, vii, 52, 53, 94, 130, 

147, 195, 199, 211, 319 
Jesus, 288, 366, 379 

Kant, 291, 319 

Lee, F. S., 136 
Life, 217 
Lincoln, 77, 234 
Lowell, 330 

McCunn, 243, 382 
Meyers, 114 



Mind and body, 51, 58, 93, 

100 f., 129 f. 
Moral fire, 151 
Moral ideals, 355 f . 

New England conscience, 149 
Non-resistance, 369 
Normal, 57, 65 

Orthodox, 289 
Ossory, Bishop of, 99 

Palmer, 40, 324, 374, 382 

Payot, 197 

Philos. of the Spirit, The, viii, 

272,312,320 
Plato, I57»3H> 333*376 
Process, 54, 62 f . 
Psychology, 17 f., 46 f., 116, 

202 
Purpose, 38, 75, 88 f., 146, 166 

Qualitative, 24, 170, 176, 216 

Quantitative, 2, 23 

Reason, 69, 133, 249, 258, 298 

Religion, viii, 287 
Reserves, 130 f. 
Revelation, 304 
Roosevelt, 234 
Royce, 53 

Scientific management, 4 f ., 18, 

178, 360 
Scientific method, the, 309 f. 
Second wind, 130, 147 
Self, 53, 65, 109, 115, 236 
Self-coerciveness, 356 f. 
Self-control, 50 f . 
Self-realisation, 34, 45, 129, 

148, 164 f., 294, 364, 377 
Self-sacrifice, 367, 375 
Sensation, 55, 74 
Socrates, 71, 311, 376 
Soul, 100, in 
Spirit, the, 109, 251 



Index 



387 



Stream of thought, 52, 55 f., 

103, 122, 217 
Stubbs, J. C, 233 
Subconscious mind, 50, 86, 97 

f., 100 f. 
Subjective, 100, 11 1 
Subliminal, 98, 114 
Success, 10, 16, 75, 77, 90, 94, 

213 f. 
Suggestion, 68, 85, 97, 108, 153 

Taylor, F. W., 4, 6, 18, 19 
Thought, 61, 65, 105 
Time, 6, 24, 171, 176, 179 
Time-planner, 5, 16 

Unconscious cerebration, 98, 
101, 120, 222 



Use and disuse, 226 

Vocational training, 11, 13, 
161, 184,243 

Will, 38, 54> 64, 74 f., 153; 
origin of, 96; power of, 188; 
obstinate, 191; weak, 193, 
238; nature of, 199 f.; theo- 
logical view of, 201 ; psycho- 
logical view, 202 f.; concen- 
tration and, 206; inhibition 
and, 209; success and, 241; 
intellect and, 299; love and, 

335 
Woman, 178 f., 276 
Work, 5, 39 f ., 138, 160 f ., 358, 

363 



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